“This will be my operating table and Sadie is gonna be the nurse, and Mister Sergeant Steinman is gonna…” The sergeant was thirty feet into the forest urinating against the trunk of a tree. “Well, never mind him, Mister Jimmy, we’ll get you fixed up. First thing we gots to do is cut away that old bandage. Uck! That looks kinda gross, right Sadie? That clot is kinda like a spider. Don’t you think so? Especially with all those strings coming off of it. That’s what it looks like to me.”
Sadie, who was pale and swallowing rapidly, didn’t answer. I think it looks like a spider, too, a voice whispered in her ear. It’s frickin awesome! The voice was Chris’s. She wasn’t supposed to talk to him when people were around.
“Uh-huh,” she murmured to him and then beamed a smile at Jimmy who was more pale than Sadie. “Okay, so I gotta numb you up before we clean out that wound and debride it. Debriding is when you cut away all the dead skin and flesh and muscle and such. It hurts, but don’t worry! I have some xylocaine. Too bad I can’t do a nerve block on you. That’s what means, knocking out the nerve cluster…”
“Can you do it without talking?” Jimmy asked. It sounded like begging to Jillybean.
“Sure, I guess…can I hum?” She was used to talking her way through her surgeoning. She didn’t like the quiet during those times. For some reason, seeing the blood and the entrails and the strange things inside of people and monsters would sometimes trigger a whispering within her.
It would start low as if there was someone just outside the door trying to tell her a secret. Gradually, if she didn’t do something to stop it, the voices would grow in volume. It was always worse if she ever asked what the secret was, then it was like opening a door inside of her that led to a land filled with the dead—filled with the people she had killed.
Their whispering was hard to stop because their secrets were her secrets. Each of them knew her on an intimate level. They knew what sort of evil she was capable of. They saw past the cutesy little girl exterior and went right to her black heart.
Even there in the forest there was a whisper. At first, it sounded like the wind in the trees, only the trees were still. Then it sounded like rocks sliding across one another…
“Ipes hated my humming,” she said, suddenly, her voice edging higher than usual, her hands starting to shake as she drew out the first dose of xylocaine. “Ipes always said I couldn’t carry a tune even if it had handles. That was a joke. Ipes was a jokester.”
What do you mean was? the zebra asked in his usual, somewhat nasally voice. I still am a jokester. What are the only kind of bees that give milk? Boobies! Ha-ha, that’s a good one.
Jillybean couldn’t help the smile that brightened her features. Jimmy gave it a nervous look, but she didn’t care. The whispering had receded back into the nothing of her mind. She had summoned Ipes and like always, his presence was enough to make everything all right.
She knew that he was as dead as the whisperers, but she also knew that he had never been truly alive. He was just like Chris and Eve, not quite real. Captain Grey had said they were a part of her. He had said they had helped her. And wasn’t that good?
And they were still helping her by warding off the whisperers. The whispers were the real bad things in her. They were even worse than Eve, who was selfish and mean. The whispers wanted Jillybean to burn the whole bitch down. They wanted murder on a global scale. And somehow they knew about a place nearby called Malmstrom. And they knew about the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles that were kept there. And they knew what those did.
They knew about the fire that would turn the world to cinder and ash and they knew about the radioactive rain that would turn a child into a hideous beast with running sores her teeth falling out and sloppy wet patches of hair on her otherwise bald head. And she knew she deserved all of it.
Her hands were shaking again. “What was that joke about the skunk and the blender?” she asked, pretending she was speaking to Sadie who only shrugged.
But Ipes knew the joke and a hundred more just like it. He knew that she needed to forget Gayle, whom she had let bleed to death, and Granny Annie, who she had drugged until her lungs stopped, and the real Eve, who she had poisoned, and Sylvia, who she had shot in the stomach, and Ernest the bounty hunter who had thought he was nastier and meaner than she was, and the Colonel and his two guards, and the River King…and a thousand others.
Chapter 4
Sadie Martin
Other than the strange and completely out of place snickering by Jillybean, which gave Jimmy a bad case of the creeps, making him lean back away from his own arm, looking as though he wouldn’t mind chopping it off to get out of there, the surgery went off without a hitch.
When it was over, Jillybean simply sat among the piles of discarded and filthy bandages, staring at her bloody instruments. “I should clean up,” she said around a huge yawn.
The yawn was contagious, bringing tears to Sadie’s eyes. “No, don’t. That’s like asking the chef to do the dishes. I’ll take care of it.” Jillybean nodded without much enthusiasm. There wasn’t any need to ask the little girl how she was doing. Physically she looked as though she had been in a car crash, then set marching for six hours with a heavy pack and then forced to perform surgery—she was exhausted.
Mentally…well, it was best just not to ask about that. Ever since the new council of Estes had voted to kick Jillybean out of the group, her mental illness seemed to have gotten worse. Although it was understandable. She hadn’t just been rejected by the very community she had sacrificed herself for time and again, she had been publicly vilified and blamed for many of the troubles that had befallen them.
Had it not been for Neil and Captain Grey standing up for her, the little girl might have been run out of the Valley right away. If Fred Trigg hadn’t been trampled to death trying to be the first one through the Red Gate after the VX gas attack, she probably would have.
In spite of their support, it was obvious Jillybean wasn’t wanted. This was one of the main reasons why Sadie overruled Neil and insisted that she come on the scouting mission. Yes, there would be danger and moments of heart-pounding stress, but it was better than the slow and steady erosion of her mental state by being the Valley’s only untouchable. Sadie felt that to be a worse torture than the water boarding the girl had been threatened with.
Out there in the wilderness, she was both needed and wanted—when she was keeping the voices in check, that is. Steinman pretended not to hear the muttered words that would croak out of her mouth, while Jimmy never failed to look alarmed.
Sadie did the opposite. She would smile and engage Jillybean, asking her questions about subjects she knew the girl liked, usually chemistry or physics. Then she would smile through the long and mystifying answers until she felt that Jillybean had righted her ship, so to speak.
Thankfully, it wasn’t needed on that morning. By the time she returned from washing off the surgical tools, Jillybean was fast asleep, leaning against her pack, three feet from the blood soaked rock. Sadie glanced over at Jimmy and Sergeant Steinman, both of whom were sleeping with their backs to the same tree, snoring away.
Exhausted, she sat down next to Jillybean. The thought that someone should be keeping watch crossed Sadie’s mind a second before her eyes closed and her chin dropped to her chin.
The sun had coursed halfway across the sky before Sergeant Steinman woke everyone up, mumbling: “What the fuck? What time is…three? Oh, shit, it’s late. Time to get up. Jimmy, come on, wake up.” The little group moaned and groaned into sitting positions, each looking disheveled and far from rested.
“I miss my bed,” Jimmy said, trying to stretch without moving his right arm. He had a splotchy drool stain on one shoulder.
“I miss Hank,” Jillybean said as she stood up and adjusted her pink tutu. It had run up her skinny body and was tucked up under her armpits, giving her a stunted appearance. “He never got a real chance to show what he could do. Boy howdy, if we had knowed those guys were there, we
coulda let ‘em have it. He was a good truck. And I don’t like marching so much.”
“In the day time it’ll be better,” Sadie said, half lying to herself. Her body was still aching all over from the crash, and just then she would’ve given anything for some of Jimmy’s morphine. “It’ll be like a hike in a park. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a baby bear or an otter or something.”
That perked Jillybean up. After a quick meal, packs were shouldered and they set out once more. At first, Jillybean eagerly walked beside Steinman, who set a steady pace. She was wide-eyed and excited for every movement, hoping to see that elusive baby bear. Really, she was keen on any baby animal, so much so that when Steinman began to flag, she pushed the pace.
Then the sun went down and it was like an “off” switch had been thrown. She began staggering along, her chin hung low. By ten that night, she couldn’t go on. Sadie called a halt and not even Steinman complained. While they were eating a dull meal of homemade fish jerky, which tasted horrible but supposedly kept for months, they heard an immense noise from the west.
It started as a great rumble and was followed by a hissing noise that went on for half a minute. “Did you guys hear that?” Jillybean asked, looking around with wide eyes, afraid that the noise had only been in her head.
Sadie patted her leg. “We all did,” she reassured her. “But I don’t know what it was. A train maybe?”
“No, it was a geyser,” Steinman said. “This is Yellowstone. They got all sorts of geysers here. You guys ever heard of Old Faithful? It’s probably not all that far away.”
“I’ve never heard of Old Fateful before,” Jillybean said. “What is it? And what’s a geyser? And are there really ‘yellow’ stones around here? I haven’t see none of them…I mean any of them. And are they yellow because they gots gold in them?”
Steinman sighed at all the questions, probably because he knew, as Sadie did, that any incomplete explanation would mean a hundred more questions. Jillybean must have been more exhausted than she looked since she only had an even twenty follow up questions concerning hydrothermal activity, magma, stress plates and the concept of a “Super Volcano.”
What was more likely to Sadie was that Jillybean didn’t think he was a proper source of knowledge as he made shrugging motions with every attempt at an answer.
“Can we go see one of these geysers?” Jillybean asked. “I mean, this may be our only chance. We can be careful and quiet. And I’ll be good, I promise.”
The sergeant ran a hand through his thinning hair before answering: “They’re out of our way, Jillybean and I’m pretty darn tired.” Her face dropped and he added: “How about this, if we come across one, we’ll stop and take a look.”
She lit up at the idea. “Can I see the map, please? There might be a geyserer real close by. That one we just heard might be closer than it sounded.” Sadie doubted that. The noise had an echoey quality to it that suggested it was miles away.
Steinman gave the map a glance, puzzled over it for a moment and then handed it over. “Here you go, but I don’t know if it’ll do you much good. I’m not sure where we are exactly. The last time I knew exactly where we were was when we crossed the river north of the lake.” That had been just before they had stopped that morning.
Jillybean took the map with a peculiar look on her face. She cupped her hand around her maglite and studied the map, her little lips puckered and twisted to the side. “Why have a map if you’re not going to use it?” she asked in one of her croaky voices. The sound of it was chilling; Jimmy and Steinman shared a look.
“Maybe he doesn’t know how to use it?” a different voice asked. Jillybean was still bent over the map and didn’t seem to be aware of what she was doing.
“Hey, Jillybean,” Sadie said, quickly. “Let’s get you bundled up with some leaves so you don’t freeze. You can sleep right next to me. We’ll cuddle for warmth.”
The girl looked up from the map, confused for a moment, and then smiled in that way only she could. “Sure, but no pine needles. They’re too pokey. We gotta use the big leaves and the moss. They’re the best.” The moment was quickly forgotten as the little girl set out to make the comfiest forest bed possible. Sadie let her bounce around from tree to tree, gathering bundles in her arms.
Jillybean also picked out a wonderful crevice for the two to crash in. With leaves both over and beneath them, they were quite snug and it wasn’t long before they were both dead asleep.
Sadie slept so deeply that she didn’t notice when the sun came up over the eastern mountains, or when a pack of zombies tromped within thirty feet of the little crevice she was sleeping in, or when Jillybean slipped away and didn’t return.
It was, perhaps, the girl’s absence that eventually woke her at a quarter to eight. Once again, they had overslept and once again they had laid down without setting a watch schedule. Sadie was glad for the unbroken sleep, but a part of her knew that it would lead to trouble eventually. To her it was a wonder that the ever safety-conscious Jillybean hadn’t said anything this time. Normally, she would…
Only just then did she realize the little girl was gone. Sadie sat up and rustled her hands among the leaves. She can be using the bathroom, she thought, let’s not panic just yet. The thought was barely conceived before Sadie saw that Jillybean’s little backpack was gone.
“Shoot.” She heaved herself up from the leaf pile and stood listening to the sounds of the forest: birds, squirrels and branches occasionally creaking together was all that came to her. “Oh, boy. Sergeant Steinman? Jimmy? Hey, we got to get going. It’s almost eight.”
Steinman let out a long breath, before he struggled to his feet. He had just set his knuckles into the small of his back and gave it a good cracking when he realized Jillybean wasn’t around. He grunted in question.
“Probably out looking for a geyser or baby bear,” Sadie answered.
“What? No, she’s prob…fuck! Her pack is missing. Fuck!” Cursing with every other step, he stomped around in a little circle until he came to stand in front of Sadie. “How could you let this happen?”
“I didn’t ‘let’ anything happen,” Sadie replied, her voice deeply cold. “The truth is, you can’t stop Jillybean when she’s set her mind on something. Everyone knows that.”
Steinman turned another circle, this one smaller than the first, though the curses were just as vulgar. “And now what are we supposed to do? She could be anywhere…oh, she’s lost, I know it. I just fucking know it. We’re going to have to comb these fucking woods, and for how long?”
“It’s highly unlikely that she’s lost,” Sadie said. “In fact, in all the time I’ve known her, she’s never been lost. I…”
Jimmy interrupted her. “Look over there. On that tree.” He was pointing with his good arm at a little piece of pink tulle, the fine mesh netting that tutus were made from. It sat on a branch of scrub pine about three feet from the ground.
Sadie picked up her pack and went to it. “That’s what I thought. Who wants to bet their lunch she’ll lead us right to one of the geysers?”
It was a sucker bet that neither would touch. They followed the pink trail on a southwest course for three miles until they came out over a blasted, open area where the ground was covered in white earth and where nothing lived but some scrub and a few zombies.
A small river snaked through the open area and beyond it was the first sign of humanity they had seen since they were shot at a day and half before. They were staring down on Old Faithful, and the Old Faithful Inn, and the Old Faithful Cafeteria, the Old Faithful Lodge, the Old Faithful General Store and lastly, the Old Faithful Education Center.
They were still staring when Jillybean came up behind them and nearly scared Sergeant Steinman right off the hill. She didn’t look much like the Jillybean who had left sometime in the early hours of the day. Her blue jeans were no longer blue and the soft pink velvet jacket was no longer soft or pink. She looked as though she had lost a fight with a pig over the rights to
its sty.
The only thing truly human about her was the map she had borrowed the night before and a brochure that had the picture of Old Faithful on the cover fold. “Accordion to this, we have somewhere between eight minutes and eighty-two minutes before it goes off again. I saw the last one and it was really cool.”
“Jillybean!” Steinman hissed. “Damn it, you can’t go running off like that. It’s not fair to us and it’s not fair to the people counting on us. I’m sorry to be so harsh, but you need to learn this lesson right now. There’s no telling how much time you’ve cost us coming out here.”
Initially, she had shrunk into Sadie’s side at the rebuke, but on the question of time she rallied. “I didn’t lose you any time, except for a little. You said you wanted to go to Idaho Falls and this is one of the ways to get there. It’s also a scenic way and that’s what means it’s nice.”
Steinman pushed a tense smile onto his even tenser face. “Jillybean, listen, I don’t care how nice it is. You need to follow me and listen to me.”
“Well, we might save time if we use the map. Your way is sorta meandering and that’s a fancy word what means you squiggle when you walk. Here, let me show you our way since we lost Hank.”
She opened the map where an ink line wove in a distinctly meandering manner. “Here is where we came to the river, but we didn’t cross until way up here at this bridge. And this is where we came to that cliff thing. And here is that ravine that had the monsters. We couldn’t see them, but Mister Jimmy wanted to go around, amember?”
“Yes, of course, I remember but this isn’t right, Jillybean,” he said, reaching for the map. “You scared all of us. What would have happened if you had gotten lost? Or what if you got attacked by, uh, monsters?”
“Oh you don’t have to worry about that. I never get lost cuz I amember where I’ve been. There was this one lady named Sarah and she…” Jillybean paused as a rumbling sound ran up the light easterly wind. “It’s gonna happen soon! We should get closer.”
The Undead World (Book 10): The Apocalypse Sacrifice Page 4