by Karen Carr
“Was?” I asked, glancing at Trevan and motioning for him to stop kicking Maxwell.
Maxwell tried to swipe Trevan with his boot, but Trevan was swift. “He was torn apart by a dozen of those suckers. We escaped because of him and my brother, Renoir.”
I felt Lily’s hand on my shoulder. “Renoir is your brother?” she asked Maxwell. “That means Harper is your sister?”
“Yup, we were one happy family, right Harper?” Harper wailed and Maxwell grimaced. “Yea, well. I’m all you’ve got now, sister. You better deal with it.”
“Shut up,” said Trevan. He kicked Maxwell in the rear, making him stumble forward.
“Trevan, stop kicking him.” Lily slid between me and Trevan.
“Please people.” Reverend Mac clapped his hands three times. “We have a chance to heal. To do that, we need to stop scratching our wounds. Please people. Only healing forward. We are family now. We will get through the love and the hate and the fear and the frustration together.” Reverend Mac braided his fingers. “People together. Can we do that?”
We all stared at each other.
“Oh for the love of God.” Shelly Mac let out an exasperated sigh. “Will you agree?”
Trevan was the first to nod. “Yes,” he said.
After that, we all agreed, all of us except Harper who was still not able to speak.
The Reverend invited us inside the church. It seemed strange to be in the church, knowing that Huck and I had cleared it months ago and had never seen a sign of Reverend Mac or his wife, Shelly. Reverend Mac explained that there were underground apartments built when the church was constructed. They had been living in them since that fateful day when everyone in the wedding party had been zombified.
Before the Reverend was able to give us a tour of their apartments, the din of an engine sounded in the distance. I held my breath so that I could hear it better. Reverend Mac looked at me like he was waiting for a response, but I didn’t remember what he had said or if he had spoken. I was concentrating on the growing grumble outside. Soon, everyone heard it and their attention focused on the door.
It had to be a motorcycle. It sounded exactly like Huck’s. There was no way that he was still alive. It had been almost four months since I saw him and a whole winter had passed. Winters in Chapel Hill were mild, but up in the mountains they could be murder, especially now. A rush of cold air washed over my skin, leaving goose bumps in its tracks.
I ran out of the church to see if it was him, not caring what the others were thinking or doing. I only needed to know one thing, that Huck was alive. I recognized him instantly and immediately began to feel woozy. He was driving slowly into the oval, with his rifle on his back and a hand on the pistol attached to his handlebars, much like first time I saw him.
Trevan and Lily came out of the church just as a very large monster truck came into the village. Lily put her arm around my shoulder, presumably to hold me up as I was pretty wobbly, and whispered in my ear, “Is that him?”
I nodded yes in answer.
Huck stopped his bike and turned off the engine, but did not dismount; instead he stared at us coldly. Finally, he took the rifle from his back and held it toward us, not exactly pointing it at us, but not really away from us either. I knew it. He wanted to take over the village with his friends and was deciding on how to get rid of us.
I hoped I was wrong about Huck’s intentions, and when I saw Trevan I knew I was. Trevan, who was standing next to Lily, had pulled out a pistol and was pointing it at Huck.
“Put that down,” I hissed, not taking my eyes from Huck.
A jeep and another motorcycle entered the village and stopped behind Huck’s bike. The Reverend and his wife came out of the church, holding onto Maxwell and Harper. Neither Huck nor Trevan had put down their guns, but the others in the vehicles began to come out and walk toward us.
The elderly couple and the young boy came out of the monster truck. They had to be Archie, Easter and Mike. Two women and a teenage girl came out of the jeep, who had to be Boa and Zora, the two sisters, and Eliza. I recognized Eliza immediately from the picture I had found in Huck’s room after he left. She was the girl in short-shorts. Eliza was his brother’s wife, Huck had said. It all made sense. I laughed at myself for thinking there was anything between Huck and his sister-in-law. I remembered how Huck had talked about his brother, Brian, and how much he loved him. Finally, the guy on the bike in the back, Zeke or Zora’s husband, dismounted and walked toward us.
Someone was missing.
There we were, all staring at each other, our side and theirs like we were some sort of opposing gangs ready to start fighting. It was almost too surreal to be real. Nobody spoke, nobody moved to greet us. Huck remained on his bike with his rifle across his lap. Here we were. We were strangers, we were family. We didn’t know whether to fight or to hug each other.
“You’re the unofficial mayor, Hella,” Lily said. “Why don’t you introduce us?”
I took a few tentative steps forward; Huck dismounted his bike and did the same. We were like gang leaders walking forward to discuss a truce. He looked weathered, scarred, worn out, and angry.
“What took you so long?” I asked, smiling, but Huck didn’t return my smile. He didn’t answer either. He seemed to feel annoyed that I had so many people with me. He scanned them slowly, carefully, his eyes flashing over their hands, their face, stopping at Trevan and the pistol in his hand.
“It’s been rough,” Huck finally said, not taking his eyes from Trevan’s pistol. “We couldn’t get out before winter.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I thought you were…” I couldn’t finish my sentence.
I thought he was dead. By the looks of him, he almost was. I had been prepared for this moment, rehearsed it many sleepless nights, but I didn’t think it would go like this. There were so many dirty scrubby people who all needed baths and were probably all starving.
The guy who was on the second bike came forward. He was tall, taller than Huck, but about the same age, so I knew it was Zeke. That meant that Zora’s husband was gone. Zeke was wearing a vest over a tight sweat shirt that revealed bulging muscles, not body-builder crazy big, but the guy definitely did a lot of lifting. His hair was short, shaved almost to the skull. He was staring at me so intently that it made me nervous, like he hated me already.
“We’ve been expecting you.” My words sounded so phony and fake, like I knew they were coming in some supernatural way and like I had devious intentions. “I recognize all of you from Huck’s descriptions. I am,” I paused, thinking I didn’t want to call attention to myself as a leader. “We are very happy to have you here. Welcome to Haverlyn Village. We have found you apartments that have running water so you can take baths. We have stocked your apartments with food and other things. We are building a garden to sustain us for a lifetime. But most of all, you are safe here. You are protected from the infected hollows here. We are family now.” The last bit sounded so corny, that I felt myself blush.
“You always greet your family with a gun?” Zeke asked. He reached forward and took the gun away from Trevan by twisting it out of his hands.
“That’s mine,” Trevan said like a baby.
“Not anymore,” Zeke said, and then he turned to me, staring at me like I was the worst person on earth. “You think those flesh dolls won’t come around here? You better be right, sister. You have any idea how many we had to kill to get here?”
“We don’t want any trouble,” Huck said, more to Zeke than to us. Huck and Zeke exchanged angry glances, Zeke rolled his eyes.
“We don’t?” Zeke said. He sounded surprised, sarcastic. “They seem to.” Zeke emptied the bullets out of Trevan’s gun and handed it back to him.
“No we don’t,” I said. “We were just…These kids ambushed us at Walmart. We were trying to figure out what to do with them when you came up.”
“These kids?” Zeke asked. He went over to Maxwell and his sister. “These kids?” he asked again,
sounding dumbfounded. He then began to laugh. He flicked Maxwell in the head with his finger. Maxwell didn’t do anything, but looked nervous.
“Come on, Zeke,” Huck said. “Back off. Everyone’s tired.”
Zeke glanced at Zora and Boa, who looked like they were about to fall over. He turned back toward me and glared, studying my face like he wanted to rip it off. I didn’t know what I did to this guy, but he was making me very uncomfortable. “Sure, bro,” Zeke said. “You have some rooms for rent Queen Bee?”
“You don’t have to take that attitude with me,” I said. I wasn’t going to let anyone make snarky to me, not in my home. If Zeke thought I was a coward or a pushover, he had another thing coming. “I was here first and I cleaned up this place for you, so you are going to do things my way. This is my home and you are going to follow my rules. If you are going to stay you have to do it my way.”
“You can’t control what we do,” Zeke said.
“I can for now,” I said. I wasn’t going to back down. I wasn’t going to let them interfere with my new research project. “And especially you can’t take anything out of the apartments. You can’t wear the previous tenants’ clothes, you can’t steal their jewelry.”
“What makes you so special?” Zeke snarled.
Huck turned to me, and said, “We could use a break from each other—all of us.” I tried to read Huck’s eyes, but any sign of emotion, of caring for me or anything, was gone. His eyes were hollow.
“Lily and I found plenty of keys to the apartments. They’re in Pizza Adamo’s.” I pointed in that direction. “I can give you your sets over there.”
Huck turned to Lily and smiled, but it wasn’t his happy-comfortable smile, it was a painfully forced grimace trying to masquerade as a smile. His eyes then covered the rest of the people in my group, moving from the Reverend and his wife, to the kids, and Trevan and finally back to me. He then took a deep breath and let it out slowly, offering me a small and sincere smile when he was done.
“Thanks,” Huck said, his hollow eyes flickered to life for a second, and then went dark again. He tweaked my chin with his finger and thumb. Zeke started to say something, but Huck turned to him before he could. “Zeke, shut up and come on.”
Huck started to walk toward Pizza Adamo. Zeke spit on the ground and followed Huck, soon overtaking him to lead the way. The grandparents, Easter and Archie, followed Zeke, Archie carrying the boy in his arms. The two sisters, Zora and Boa, trailed after the group leaving Eliza standing alone.
Eliza came forward. “Thanks for taking care of my husband,” Eliza said before she turned and walked after her group.
The word husband made me feel weak in the knees all over again, and I fell against Lily’s chest. Was she referring to Huck? If so, her tone had been sincere, so Huck obviously didn’t tell her how well I took care of him. I couldn’t believe he was married. How did he leave that stupid little fact out? That was his brother’s wife, unless Huck lied about that. Of course he did. Liar.
“What an ass-hat,” I said.
“Which one?” Lily said. I could tell by the look in her eyes she knew which one I was referring to, but was trying to lighten the strain. “You’re not going to put them near us, are you?”
“He’s married.” I said. I felt like spitting myself, but there were too many spitters already. “What kind of a…”
“Sorry, girl,” Trevan said. “They all can’t be faithful like me.” Trevan winked at Lily.
“Not now, Trevan,” Lily said.
The Reverend, who had been whispering to his wife, came over to us. “We’d like to take the children down.”
The Reverend’s wife, Shelly, put one arm each around Harper and Maxwell and drew them close to her side.
“The truth is,” the Reverend whispered. “My dear Shelly was never able to have her own children and this would be good for her. We truly do have the room, but we will probably need more supplies. I’ll have Shelly make a list and we can meet later.”
The Reverend and his wife walked back in the church with the two kids. I was glad to see them go, I didn’t really know what to do with those kids, and they had been totally unexpected. Maxwell was obviously not trustworthy and I didn’t feel like being around Harper, she reminded me too much of my sister.
“Wow,” Trevan said.
“Yea, it’s kind of amazing,” Lily said. “Do you think there are others out there?”
“I hope not,” Trevan said, and then he added, “just kidding.”
“I am sure there are,” I said. I thought of Stan and Saudah and knew that I had to find them next. There had to be a way that I could sneak out of the village without risking everyone’s life, to get to Saudah’s apartment. I needed to look for clues, to find out where they went, to see if they were still alive. It was just one small step I needed to take for them.
Chapter 18: Wine Makes Nice
March 6
700 Oval Park Place
Pizza Adamo
Haverlyn Village
When I walked into Pizza Adamo, with Trevan and Lily by my side, the chatter immediately stopped and I was greeted by silent stares. I wondered what they were talking about before we walked in and hoped it wasn’t anything bad. Were they already thinking about taking over the village?
I regarded Huck, who had forgotten to tell me he was married, and felt anger bubbling up in my stomach. I had been through so much these last few months, and had finally met someone who ended up betraying me. It wasn’t my thing, getting betrayed by guys, I wasn’t the kind to go after the bad boy. But here he was, shifting his eyes every time I tried to make a connection, my failed bad-boy romance. Never again—unless he had a really, really good explanation. Even in his emaciated state, he was more handsome than any guy I ever dated and I couldn’t take my eyes from his jaw.
Eliza sat peacefully on a chair next to Zeke who stood with his hands folded across his chest. Zeke was glaring at me so hard he made my skin hot. The grandparents, Archie and Easter, were standing closest to me, both holding onto their grandson. I had chosen a first floor apartment for them. It was a two bedroom that I filled with Legos, board games, a DS3 player and some games to fit it. The keys were behind the counter, where I had stashed them many months ago, so I walked over there to get them.
When I moved, Zeke moved in front of the door, making me even more nervous. Eliza stayed focused on Zeke, not really giving Huck much regard, which felt strange for his wife. I brought out the tray with the keys. I had put each on a key ring and written the address on a white circle attached to the ring. When I looked up, Huck was staring at me. Our eyes met, and for a moment he couldn’t take his away. He gave me his half-crooked smile, but I didn’t return it.
“Archie, Easter,” I said, holding their key. “This is to your apartment. You’re going to be neighbors with Lily.” I handed Archie the key, and he held it like it was the most precious metal on earth, lifting it up to observe it in the sunlight streaming through the windows, holding it to see if it was real. I suppose, for all of us it symbolized hope, the beginning of the return to civilization.
“Thank you.” Archie kissed the key.
“Thank you for giving us a home,” Easter said. She made an awkward gesture like she wanted to hug me and then seemed to be embarrassed about her filth, finally wiping her hands on her shirt and clasping mine in them. They felt warm and gave me comfort, made me think of my mother.
Zeke snorted, and I caught Huck giving him a wicked look. I brought out the laundry bag full of clean clothes that I had picked up at Walmart and put it on the counter.
“These are just some things I thought you might find useful,” I said. “Clean clothes and such—from Walmart. I didn’t know your size, but I guessed as well as I could.”
“She’s dressing us now?” Zeke asked under his breath to no one in particular.
“No, Zeke, I’m not dressing you,” I said. “But it’s not right for you to wear other people’s clothes, so I took some time out of
my busy day to bring you new stuff to wear. You could be a little more grateful.”
“Well, you should loosen up a bit and not be so decisive and controlling,” Zeke said. “I don’t like to be bossed around.”
“I don’t let me people push me around,” I said.
“That’s clear,” Zeke said. “But neither do I.”
I heard Huck snarl something to Zeke, but I didn’t make out the words.
“I’ll walk them over,” Lily said. “You’re staying in my building.” Lily turned to me. “Are you going to be ok?” she asked me.
“I’ll stay,” Trevan said. Trevan was a little twitchy with that gun, which made me nervous, but at least it didn’t have any bullets.
Next up were Zora, and Boa. By their similar dark hair, hazel eyes, and light brown complexion, it was obvious they were related. They both were strikingly beautiful and shared a resemblance only sisters could have.
I had put them in the third building we found that had solar. It was a three bedroom on the second floor. Zora looked bewildered, so I asked Trevan to walk her over to her apartment and show her where it was. When she left, she murmured something to Zeke. He bent down to her ear and whispered something else while giving me a sideward glance. She looked at him like she was warning him of something and I wondered what that was about. Eliza, Huck’s apparent wife, seemed uncomfortable by their interaction too.
I was left alone with Huck, Zeke and Eliza. I had planned to give Zeke and Eliza keys to separate one bedroom apartments, but now knowing that Eliza was somehow with Huck I wondered if they were going to share an apartment.
Just thinking of Eliza and Huck alone together made me remember how he was with me and made me revolted. He had no right playing those games with me while Eliza stayed back in the mountains freezing to death. She looked like a nice enough person, although she was on the frail side, extra skinny and gaunt, like she had been sick. I made a vow to myself not to hate her for being Huck’s wife. I would only hate him.
“Your key,” I said to Eliza. I turned to Zeke and handed him his without saying anything. I decided that I would not give a key to Huck. He could decide where he wanted to stay.