Dawnland (Book 1): Pockets of the Dead

by Karen Carr

  “What I really want is some wine,” Eliza said, glancing over at the bottles behind the bar and then smiling. “A merlot or any kind of Bordeaux would be so wonderful right now.”

  “Sure,” I said. After Zeke stared at me, I added, “But why don’t you go pick one. This isn’t my place. You have the right to take anything you want. I’m not in charge. I don’t really want to be in charge. I mean, I suppose none of us should stockpile anything without the others knowing, I would think. I’d hate all the wine to go missing because it’s the only thing I drink.”

  “Me too,” said Eliza. “I’m a wino. I don’t like anything else except a good margarita.” She went behind the bar and searched through the bottles of wine. She would pick one up, and make a childish giggle, and then put it down when she saw another one that she liked. I sat down in the big booth in the corner.

  “This place is stocked,” she said. “And with some great years.” She picked a bottle of Merlot.

  “Grab me a beer, would you?” Zeke asked, and then turned to Huck. “Make that two.”

  Eliza brought over two Hefferveisens, the Merlot, and two wine glasses and sat down with me in the booth. Zeke and Huck joined us, Zeke sliding in next to Eliza and Huck reluctantly sitting next to me.

  When Eliza had trouble uncorking the wine, Zeke helped her and poured some wine in her cup. He then gave me a glance and a snarl and poured some in my glass as well. He took a beer and gave the other one to Huck.

  “Where’s Huck going to stay?” Eliza took a sip of her wine and hummed in appreciation of her drink.

  “I thought he would stay with you.” I swirled my wine in the glass, watching liquid form waves on the surface and then slide down the side back to the pool at the bottom.

  Eliza laughed. She had a laugh that sounded like hundreds of people toasting their glasses and it warmed me from head to toe. I didn’t want to like her, but I couldn’t help it. Her spirit was infecting me.

  Zeke was staring at Huck with a puzzled expression.

  “Why?” Eliza asked me. She sniffed her glass and then held it up to the sunlight. “I can’t believe it’s real.” She took another sip and let out a giant sigh of happiness.

  “I thought he was your husband.” I said, feeling a flush come over me. Now Huck gave Eliza a strange and puzzled look.

  “Oh yea, well, he is.” Eliza held on to her wine glass with both hands like she didn’t want anyone to take it away from her. “But not really. I mean it’s legal and all, but Huck only married me because his brother told him to look after me. We never even consummated it. I only agreed because at that time I needed a lot of looking after. I guess I still do, but…” Eliza looked at Zeke, who put a protective arm around her.

  I felt Huck staring at me, which made me nervous. I had made a stupid mistake, but it wasn’t my fault. I felt relief knowing that Huck hadn’t been such an underhanded liar as I first thought when Eliza first mentioned she was married to him.

  “Funny thing is. . .” Zeke grimaced at Huck. “Now you can never legally get divorced.”

  “We have a Reverend,” I offered. “He can probably perform some kind of divorce ceremony or something.” My tone sounded a little too eager and I hoped they wouldn’t interpret that to mean I had feelings for Huck. By the looks on their faces, he told them nothing of our relationship, which made me angry.

  “How did you find so many more people?” Huck asked. He was regarding me more naturally, but a little suspiciously.

  I told them the story of how I went downtown for the Professor’s Christmas present, which made Huck angry that I left the village. I then told them about the boys, and how one had hit me over the head, which made Huck angrier. Then I told them about Lily and Trevan, but I left out the part where Trevan was going to kill us because I didn’t want Huck to get angry at Trevan.

  I finished by telling them about the Walmart trip, and how we were met by the kids, and finally how we came back here and found the Reverend just as they were pulling into the village. Huck looked like he had about a thousand words he wanted to say to me, but kept silent.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Eliza was twisting a wedding ring on her finger, trying to get it off.

  “Tell you what?” Huck was glaring at Eliza’s motions.

  “That you had a thing for Hella.” Eliza managed to get the ring off and slid it over to Huck.

  “Maybe I didn’t think it was your business.” Huck stared at the ring, but didn’t move to pick it up. It had obviously meant something to him. I was embarrassed that Eliza had made such a display of the ring, obviously it must have been her and Huck’s wedding ring. But Huck didn’t wear his. I looked at his ring finger to see if there were tan lines, and there weren’t.

  “You have a thing for me?” I spoke a bit sharply, still embarrassed by the ring burning a hole in the table.

  Huck looked at me like I was stupid and then pushed the ring back toward Eliza. “I don’t want this,” he said to her, and then turned toward me. “Don’t you remember my thing?” A blush covered my face as I remembered being next to him. I didn’t think he was referring to his physical thing, but that’s all that was on my mind.

  “I thought it was all an act.” I glanced at Eliza. She had taken the ring and put it back on her finger. “You know, to get your friends here so you could take over the place peacefully.”

  “Oh come on, really?” Huck looked genuinely hurt.

  “So, how did you get to be in charge?” Zeke asked. I gratefully accepted the diversion, though his tone was hostile.

  “I didn’t plan on it.” I caught Zeke’s stare and met it with equal passion.

  “She was the first one here,” Huck said, gesturing with his beer. “She has rights.” He put down his mug with a thump and took my hand for all to see on the table. I resisted the urge to jerk my hand away.

  “What rights? No one has rights anymore.” Zeke downed the remains of his beer in one giant gulp.

  “I didn’t bring you here for this,” Huck said to Zeke and then he turned to me. “Really, Hella, I didn’t. We’re her guests.”

  “Come on, Zeke. Relax.” Eliza interrupted the flare of dispute.

  Zeke regarded Eliza for a moment. I could see softness in his eyes that I hadn’t seen before.

  “It’s been a long trip,” Zeke said to Eliza. She touched his forehead as if to check it for a temperature.

  “It’s over now,” I offered.

  “Is it?” Zeke said. He stared at me with frost covered eyes. “I suppose it is,” he finally admitted. “After all, a girl like you wouldn’t be able to survive for long.”

  I bristled at that remark. “I might not know how to shoot a gun, but that’s not the only way to survive here. I am pretty good with a pitchfork and probably know a lot more about survival than you do. Besides, you don’t know anything about me. How do you know what I am capable of?”

  Zeke had no response, just looked at me with a bewildered expression. I was a lot tougher than he thought I was. Having to dispose of dozens of dead bodies changed me. I knew I could defend myself. I knew I could kill if I had to. Huck changed the subject and they proceeded to tell me about what happened to them over the winter.

  They had stayed on the island for the whole winter. They would take brief trips to the shore to get supplies, blankets, tents, anything they could find to keep warm, but they dared not stay in the cabins. They were always wary of the lone undead wandering around, although they didn’t see many of them. The lake began to ice up, which made them nervous because the zeroes had spotted them and several were trying to walk across the ice to get to them. They would fall through the ice and down into the freezing water, which didn’t kill them but it slowed them down.

  One day, when the ice sheet had almost reached the island, one of the undead made it to shore and caught them off-guard. The thing attacked Zora’s husband first, and bit him in the shoulder before they could stop it. Then Zora’s husband turned and they were stuck with two of tho
se things on the island. They had no choice but to vacate the island, and that’s when they decided to head here. It took them three more weeks to get here, but they made it without losing anyone else.

  When we had finished the second bottle of wine and Huck and Zeke had polished off two more beers each, we decided to call it a day. Zeke and Eliza left together after Eliza thanked me for everything that I had done for them, including giving them a laundry bag of clean clothes. I was left alone with Huck.

  “I’m sorry we took so long,” Huck said. The wind was rising and howled through the drafty restaurant, sending a prickly feeling through my body.

  My eyes met his. “I’m sorry you went through all that.” I glanced through the window to the sky. It had been such a nice day earlier, but gloomy dark clouds were approaching.

  “I wanted to leave so many times but the ice and the winter held us back. I would’ve left alone, but I couldn’t desert my friends.” Huck must have seen my shiver, because he began rubbing my arms, all the way down to my fingers.

  “I know,” I whispered, barely able to get out the words. The warmth from his body was electrifying.

  Huck pressed a kiss on my hand. “I’m sorry about Eliza too. I don’t know why she told you that. She’s been with Zeke for a while and, like she admitted, we were never really married. My brother, he was real sick, I had to do it for him. She, Eliza’s kind of loopy. She gets in trouble when she doesn’t mean to. Brian, my brother, didn’t want anything to happen to her.”

  “Marrying her seems a bit extreme,” I said. Soft rain began to fall from the heavens. I knew the storm would be over soon. They always were in North Carolina.

  “Well, it just happened like that.” Huck plucked a piece of my hair from my cheek. “I wasn’t ever planning on marrying anyone for love anyway. So, I figured I might as well marry her.”

  “Why so down on love?” I asked.

  He looked at me, and I saw the emotion back in his eyes again, the feelings he had toward me. “I’m not down on it. I just never expected it to happen. I just never felt it before, until, you know…” He trailed off and stared at his beer.

  “Where do you want to stay?” I asked, suddenly desperate to change the subject. ”You can go back to that first apartment I gave you, or you could stay in my building if you wanted.”

  “How about with you?” he asked. “I could use someone to keep me warm.” He held my hands.

  “Sure,” I said. “I was thinking about that, but I don’t want any…I mean…You can sleep on the couch. It’s really comfortable.” I didn’t want to risk Huck seeing my bite just yet. It would be hard to hide it from him, but I would have to try.

  We left the pizza parlor and walked slowly around Oval Park Place toward my apartment. It was still light out and had stopped raining just as I had predicted. The air had a crispness that only occurred after a rain and made me think of warm thoughts. This was a new beginning. My new family had been born. There were so many of us, and we were safe. Humanity would be saved.

  Chapter 19: The Fights of Spring

  March 7

  501 Oval Park Place

  Haverlyn Village

  I woke to the sound of birds chirping outside of the window, the shower running in the bathroom and a delicious aroma—biscuits I think—coming from the kitchen. I assumed Huck was taking a shower. I had given him a bag of clothes to change into last night, the same as all the other guests.

  It was such an ordinary day by any other means, but to me it was quite extraordinary. There was this feeling of life everywhere, outside, inside. I heard faint noises of activity in the green, someone rolling something, a car starting and driving around, music from a radio probably from the car.

  When Huck came over last night we talked some more about how he had spent the winter. He explained how he was actually married to Eliza for two years, but nothing was really between them. She had been really shattered by his brother’s death and so had Huck, so they both thought to honor his brother they would do as he wished.

  Huck wanted me to promise that I would never do anything stupid again and not put my life in jeopardy because Huck really liked me. I said I couldn’t do that because I had to do a couple more stupid things, like go to Walmart for more supplies, make a Home Depot run for the garden, and go downtown to see if I could find any evidence of Stan and Saudah’s whereabouts.

  I didn’t mention that Stan was my boyfriend; I mean I was mad at Stan at the beginning of the apocalypse, but we hadn’t officially broken up. Stan was always more like a friend anyway and I only called him my boyfriend to keep the other guys away. When Huck saw he wasn’t going to stop me from doing stupid things, he made me promise that I would not do them without him.

  When I turned to get up, I saw that Huck had left me a cup of warm coffee on the bedside table. Next to the coffee were two pieces of chocolates shaped like hearts. I wondered where he found those. I slowly unwrapped one and placed it in my mouth. I still had my pajamas on, Huck and I had agreed to be just friends for a while, so I moved to the window to look out. What I saw made me smile.

  Archie and Easter were out in the garden. Archie had found a hoe and was digging up some of the grass next to our garden and Easter was sorting out some things in a basket. It seemed as though they were going to take up gardening like we had. Zeke was also there, under the band shell examining the electric circuit opening the connection boxes. It was nice seeing people milling about in the green, if only three of them.

  I felt a gentle touch on my back and turned to see Huck, only wearing a towel, right behind me. The thrill I felt having him next to me was unexplainable. He was thin, but his chest was rigid with muscles and carved biceps. He smelled wonderful, clean and fresh and still like Huck.

  His hand touched my face and his lips landed roughly on mine. “Sorry,” he whispered as he gently began to kiss me. I didn’t stop him. In fact my hand found his back and caressed his smooth clean skin. I felt Goosebumps rise on his arms as I made my way down his shoulder to his elbow. He started to laugh quietly and pulled back.

  “I’m not going to be able to stop,” he said, tightening the towel around his waist.

  “Sorry,” I said this time. “But I was enjoying myself.”

  He held me in his arms and looked out the window at Archie, Easter and Zeke. “We better get out there before they decide to do something that you don’t like,” Huck said.

  “I don’t think they could do anything that I don’t like,” I said, gazing into his eyes. “They’re contributing to the garden, I think that’s wonderful.”

  “How about you shower and I’ll finish making us breakfast.” Huck caressed my shoulders.

  I didn’t want to pull away from him, but I also wanted to meet my new neighbors, to get to know them, to hear their plans, to find out what they wanted to do. I found some clothes and left Huck in the kitchen.

  The water was warm and I thanked the subdivision developers once again for putting in the solar heating system. The soap, shampoo and conditioner had moved places, making me smile, knowing that Huck was the one that had moved them. I washed my body thinking about how nice it would be if he was in the shower to help me. I paid particular attention to my zero bite, still red and nasty looking, but completely healed.

  I had thought a lot about my immunity since yesterday. It would be very hard for me to go anywhere outside the village without jeopardize the life of everyone in it. But, I had to. I had to at least go and try to find my friends. I wanted Huck to come with me, not because I needed his protection, but because he needed mine.

  I stepped out of the shower and was reaching for a towel when Huck entered the bathroom with a glass of orange juice. I screamed, a major over reaction, but I screamed again making him spill the orange juice.

  I was naked, not only revealing every part of my body, but the ugly red and blue bite mark from my undead next door neighbor. If Huck saw that, he’d know what it was. I could always say it was from an over adventurous boyfri
end but if he examined it closely he would know I was lying. When I found a towel, and came to my senses, Huck had left the bathroom. I was at once embarrassed and afraid I had pushed him away from me.

  I thought I’d get dressed first, and then go out to see if he had noticed anything peculiar about my body. I put on a white Henley and blue jeans and left my hair loose to dry. When I came out, he was sitting on the window bench watching the activity in the green. I sat down next to him. He handed me the orange juice and I took a sip.

  “Yummy.” I said. He didn’t seem to be in a particularly bad mood.

  “I thought it would relax you. No telling what we’re going to walk into down there.” He gestured out the window.

  Archie and Easter had made some progress on their garden. It looked like they had made a little too much progress, and had started to plant in Lily and Trevan’s garden as well. Archie had found some stakes, put them in the ground and ran strings along them, as if he was marking his territory.

  Meanwhile, Zeke had found an electric guitar and had hooked it up into the electric system under the band shell. He was strumming a few notes and with the amplified speaker system, I heard them in the apartment. It reminded me of when they played movies under that band shell and the sound would carry all the way back to my apartment. They played the movie, Top Gun once and it sounded like there was a war going on outside. How I missed those days and I was glad Zeke was bringing some of that back.

  “You have a nasty scar on your hip,” Huck said nonchalantly. I froze. “What’s that from?”

  How much did he see? “I had my appendix out.” I couldn’t look him in the eye.

  He regarded me for a minute, and looked to where my scar was. I saw his hand move toward my shirt. I bristled. “You seemed embarrassed about it,” he said. “You don’t have to be, I’ve seen worse.”

  He touched my shirt and slid his hand up underneath it. His hand was cold from the orange juice he was drinking. I pulled away.