The Apocalypse Fugitives

by Peter Meredith

  The third man in line grunted and stood. Neil had to crane his head back to take him all in. "Sorry, dude," Big Bill murmured.

  Gunner ruffled Neil's hair condescendingly and said, "It's gonna be like David and Goliath. My money is going to be on Goliath."

  "It's going to be hard to find any takers," Neil said. "Who would bet on me?"

  The bandit leader considered this for a moment before saying, "We'll base the betting on time. I'm thinking you just might be able to last ninety seconds. You look like you could run around for a bit before he catches you." He checked his watch. "Let's do seven o'clock. Dinner and a fight sounds like a nice evening."

  "What time is it now," Neil asked, with a sense of urgency he had trouble hiding. Captain Grey might have been driven off, but he would be back.

  "Almost two," Gunner said over his shoulder as he walked away. "You got a few hours to train. Good luck."

  The moment Gunner went through the door to the grocery section of the store the sallow faced man on Neil's right perked up. "Go for his knees right away. Don't worry about getting punched or anything just kick his knees out."

  "Yeah?" Neil asked. "Does he have bad knees?" He was only curious since kicking Big Bill in the knees wouldn't change the outcome of the fight. Neil would still have to get within reach of those long arms to have any chance at winning and getting in reach was suicide. And truthfully, he had no intention of actually fighting Big Bill, because the fact was Neil didn't know how to kill a man with his bare hands.

  Captain Grey probably knew all about pressure points and strangle holds and the "Five Finger Death Blow" or some such, but Neil barely knew the basics of how to punch and was certain he would break his hand before he managed to kill a big man like Bill. If he wasn't rescued first, Neil would do exactly what Gunner had suggested: he would run in order to buy time.

  "He don't have no bad knees," one of the other prisoners said. "But Travis wish he done had 'em that way he might win when it be his turn to go up against Bill."

  "Never mind Rick," Travis said after giving the man a nasty glare. "He doesn't know anything. The knees always bother the big ones."

  "My knees are fine," Bill said. "But don't worry, dude. I won't fuck around. You'll go quick. A couple of thumps on the head and you won't know up from down and I'll finish you quick. It'll be a better way than going up against a zombie. With those, even if you win, you die."

  "Not for me, I'm immune. Got a shot in New York a couple of months ago." This impressed the other prisoners.

  Rick gazed at Neil in slack jawed wonder and proclaimed it to be shame that Neil would have to die. "Ain't no one immune what should die. That just seems like all sorts of wrong."

  "We all have to die sometime," Neil said, bolstered by their reactions. "My only request, Big Bill is that you do make the fight last. If I have to die I want it costing Gunner as much as possible." He didn't add: And I want to give Grey and Jillybean as much time as I can to save me.

  The remainder of the afternoon was not spent training. The prisoners wanted to hear all about how Neil got the vaccine and how he escaped when he was chained to a boat that was sinking and on fire. Neil even told about the real bounty hunter and the attack on New Eden. He talked not only to pass the time but also to calm himself.

  He figured that at any second he would hear Captain Grey's M4 and see little Jillybean peeking around the corner carrying a bazooka or a bomb or maybe a chainsaw to free him. However the seconds passed one after another and there was no sound of gun fire and there was no sign of Jillybean.

  At six they were fed and Gunner came in and broke the bad news to Neil that he wasn't going to be rescued. "I just got a call from our informant. Seems the group we've been searching for is going to try running tonight. That soldier friend of yours has convinced them to make a run for Tennessee. Good thing you weren't counting on him to get you out of here."

  Gunner laughed when Neil's face fell.

  Chapter 14

  Jillybean

  Warrior, Alabama

  The monster was a big one, tall, fit and imposing. It should have been scary, however Jillybean wasn't ascared at all. It had its hands held out in front of it and was moaning with a steady monotonous: "Uhhhhh..."

  Jillybean studied it, letting it come closer...closer...waiting until it was within arm's reach before she reacted. She smacked its hands down.

  "No. I'm sorry, but that's all wrong Mister Michael. Real monsters never do that. You're being too stiff."

  Michael Gates, slathered in grey makeup and wearing old, tattered and stained clothes dropped his hands and quit his moaning. "What do you mean? This is what they look like." He glanced over at Captain Grey who was sitting in the lengthening shade of an elm, already decked out in monster attire.

  The soldier shook his head. "No they don't. Zombies never walk with their arms straight out in front of them. You look like an extra in some crappy drive-in movie."

  Jillybean squinched her nose at this. "People don't drive into movies, I don't think. But Mister Captain Grey is right about your arms. Here, watch me once more."

  Ever since Ram had showed her how, the little girl had always been the best at play acting like the monsters. The key, she believed, was in turning off the big part of her brain. The part that was filled with rules: like how to stand like a lady, how to chew with your mouth closed and how to tie a bow of yellow yarn in your hair and put on a dress when all you really wanted to do is go out and play on the swings.

  Just then Jillybean's hair was just about as messy as it could be. It was going in every direction and she was sure she would find knots or gum in it when she got around to washing it next. For now it was perfect monster hair.

  With a vague moan, she went into her routine: arms swaying, her gait little more than a lurch, her eyes dull and unfocused whenever she was looking through the wisps of hair that hung across her face.

  "That's freaky," John Gates remarked. "She looks just like one of them."

  At the sound of his voice she didn't react except to turn toward him as if she was about to attack. He grunted out a laugh that was tinged with unease and looked at the others. There were only seven of them in the clearing and that was with counting Ipes, which Jillybean did for two reasons: though he had a head filled with stuffing he was as smart as any of them and because counting him made their number seven, which, as everyone knew, was a lucky number.

  Jillybean thought they would need all the luck they could get. The group of fugitives from the Floating Island had been thrown into chaos at the news that one of them had been a traitor. Loyalties fractured and they had been within a whisker of executing Clara Gates. Only Captain Grey's stoic calm and the authority of his M4 had saved her for the time being. Fred Trigg had backed down in the face of it but had not changed his mind, nor had he stopped his agitation, becoming by dint of constant diatribes the new leader of the group.

  Reluctantly, he had allowed Captain Grey, through Clara, to send out a fake radio message to the raiders stating that the group was going to make a run for it that night. Even more reluctantly, Fred had not executed Clara right afterward.

  "We may still need her," Grey had said. He had then asked for volunteers to go make the rescue attempt. Jillybean had been the first to raise her hand. Other than her only Michael Gates, his brother William, his son Cody and his nephew, John had stepped forward. Shawn had been torn between freeing his daughter and protecting his wife. He chose to stay to keep Clara from being killed.

  Now the little group was a mile outside of Warrior preparing to set Captain Grey's plan in motion. It was a bare-bones plan; once the raiders left to go after the "fleeing" fugitives, each of the Gates men would take up a position, north, south, east, and west facing the Piggly Wiggly and shoot at any target that presented itself.

  "That's it?"John Gates had asked in surprise. "That's your whole plan?"

  "Generally the more intricate a plan is the more likely it is to get screwed up," Grey had explained. "R
eally, most plans are thrown out the window on contact with the enemy anyway. Better to keep it simple."

  "What's your part of the plan, Mister Captain Grey, Sir?" Jillybean asked.

  "There's a truck entrance around the back on the east side. I'll enter through there, kill all the bad guys inside and free the prisoners. "I'll have Michael covering me on the east. You're the only one I want moving up in any supportive role. The rest of you hold your positions. Your job is to shoot anyone going around the building to try to flank us."

  "And what is my job gonna be?" Jillybean asked. "I can do stuff and Ipes is brave, for-reals."

  "You have a part, Jillybean," Grey had said. "You'll train these men how to be zombies."

  Jillybean was excited to get started, but the adults were slow at everything! They took an hour just to get their clothes right and their make-up on. More time was wasted arguing with Fred Trigg about guns and "rounds" which she finally understood to mean bullets. By the time Jillybean had finished the first part of her lesson, it was already very late in the afternoon.

  "Ok, now it's your guy's turn," she said, turning, quite suddenly, from being a little monster back into being a little girl. "Try to be as for-reals as you can because we're going to do it with real monsters next. They know a faker better than anyone."

  "Uh-uh, no way," fifteen-year-old Cody gates said. He'd been doing his best to act brave, now his eyes were wide and he took a step back. "I'm not going near a zombie! One scratch and bam! You're one of them."

  "Cody is right," Michael agreed. "There's no need to mess around with zombies. It's a useless risk." William and John both nodded to this.

  Jillybean gave Captain Grey a pointed look and he blew out in irritation. "We're doing it her way," he said in a clipped, angry tone. "She knows what she's doing. She knows that we'll be walking through a mile of zombie infested forest and she knows we won't have the luxury of either running or fighting. Proper camouflage is the only way. Besides, it's easy."

  The captain heaved himself up and started walking around like a monster.

  He swings his arms too much, Ipes noted.

  "Yeah," Jillybean said. "Excuse me, Mister Captain...I mean excuse me sir? Your arms should sway, not swing. Watch." She showed them both the swing and the sway. Grey had thunderclouds behind his eyes at first but then he grunted and tried again using the sway. The others tried also and Jillybean went among them correcting any errors.

  "Good. Now let's do it with a real monster."

  "There's not one around here," William Gates said. "And do we really have time to go looking all over the..."

  Jillybean cut him off by letting out a very loud and long scream. Everyone jumped and Ipes said, Warn a zebra next time, dang.

  "That felt good," she said. "I haven't been allowed to do that for like a year."

  "It worked," noted Captain Grey. Moaning could be heard coming from deep in the forest; the sound was heading their way. "Alright, button up. Get your zombie faces on. Jillybean will go first to show you there's nothing to it and I'll bring up the rear in case there's a problem. If there is, I'll shout and draw them to me. Everyone else, keep up the act."

  Jillybean started walking— monster walking, acting the part of a sad and starving little monster. Beneath her shirt, Ipes hung from a cord. She could feel his heart begin to pound as the first monster came stumbling toward them. Why do you have to go first? he whined.

  She didn't answer of course. She headed on a track that would have the zombie passing only ten feet from her left. Despite that, she wasn't afraid. One monster in a whole world of them wasn't enough to get worked up over.

  Not everyone felt the same.

  Her moan was natural sounding just like one of them. A dozen paces behind her she could hear the fear in Cody's moan. His voice was too high pitched and it warbled. It would attract attention. To counter it she turned slightly toward the monster.

  Uh, Jilly? What are you doing?

  At this range, answering the zebra meant death. Instead she tried to show the others how safe they were if they just kept in character. She came so close to the monster that they actually brushed shoulders. When they passed, she bent to the ground, picked up a stick and chucked into the forest.

  Like a dog the monster turned and began stumbling after it.

  In a hissing whisper she said to the others, "Your moans aren't all that real good. The monster heard something in one of you to make it have curiosity, that's what means it was going to come after you. Try again. Make your moans slow and natural. Like this, Uhhhh...uhhhhh."

  The monster had turned in confusion at the whispering, but all it saw was another of its kind limping toward it. When she passed it she snuck a peek from beneath her hair to watch the others: Michael and John were good, William was passable; his eyes came up too much, and Cody made everyone nervous because he was so stiff. Still, the monster was only a little curious and let him go by without an attack.

  Grey came last. Instead of walking around it, he walked up to the monster and kicked it square in the chest. It went down on its back and before it could get up, the soldier bashed its head in with a rock.

  He turned to Jillybean. "I'd say they did well enough."

  She shook her head. "Not Cody. I thought he was gonna get eated."

  The boy in question was pale as a ghost and swallowing air like a fish on a river bank. Grey was about to argue but one look at Cody made him agree. "Once more," Grey said. "Just try to ignore the zombie when you go by. Pretend you're just passing some dude in the hall at school."

  After a quick clearing of her throat Jillybean sang out loud: "Can you feel the love tonight. It is where we are...It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer..." She stopped with a shrug. "I don't really know any more of it. That's a song from the Lion King. It was a real good movie about this little boy lion and this little girl lion."

  "We know," Grey said in his usual growl.

  I think that means shut up, Ipes said, helpfully.

  The little girl ignored the zebra. They were trying to attract monsters and shutting up would do the opposite. "You watch cartoon movies?" she asked incredulously. The idea of the hard soldier playing Papa was inconceivable to her. "Do you have kids?"

  "I don't and I didn't," Grey said. "But if I had, don't you think that would be a poor question?"

  "Because they'd be dead?" Jillybean asked, her face drooping a bit. "I guess so. I didn't mean to..."

  "They're coming!" Cody said, still high pitched. He pointed through the trees at eight dead humans coming slowly toward them.

  Grey reached out and pulled Cody's hand down. "Zombies don't point. Remember this is just practice. We're only walking. Jillybean go first. Then Michael and William, then Cody, then me. I'll be right behind you."

  The two groups advanced on each other—and then passed by without incident. When the monsters were out of sight Grey angled them back to the truck. "That was very good. Now we can get to Warrior undetected." He dropped down to one knee and drew a long line in the dirt with a stick. "This is route 21." He drew a rectangle off of it and labeled it: PW.

  "Piggly Wiggly?" asked Cody.

  Grey glared at the boy's stupid question as he drew another box across from the first. "William, there's a bank right here. Try to get to the roof. You'll have a great view of the entire front. John, on the south corner is a restaurant. Find a good spot to shoot from. Cody, on the north are woods. Get close to the building but not too close. Michael you're with me. Cover me until I get inside then move up and follow my instructions. Any questions?"

  Jillybean raised her hand.

  There's no need for questions, Ipes said. It sounds like the grownups got it all covered. They probably don't even need our help.

  "Humph," Jillybean said to the zebra and stuck him behind her back. She waved her hand higher. "Mister Captain Grey, Sir. You forgot about me."

  "I didn't. I want you to stay with the truck." The truck had been another thing that had eaten time that afterno
on. Fred Trigg hadn't allowed them to take even an ounce of gas and they had to practically beg to borrow one of their batteries to get the truck moving.

  "Stay with the truck?" Jillybean asked, her nose wrinkling in puzzlement. "Isn't the truck gonna stay here? That's why we practiced walking like the monsters, so we could sneak up on this piggy store."

  "The truck is going to stay, and you're going to stay."

  "How am I apposed to help from way over here? That doesn't make any sense."

  Grey pointed to the road they had pulled off of. "I need you to watch the road just in case the bad guys come back early." Jillybean's eyes flared and she opened her mouth, but he shushed her. Just before the "lesson" on monster walking, the seven of them had stood in the tree-line watching four Humvees and two pickup trucks speed up the highway to "take the bait" as Captain Grey put it. "Yes, I said we have a three hour window, but you never know. If they come back early, we're done for."

  "But you need me. It was my idea to get walkie talkies...and I taught everyone how to be monsters so you could have camel-flodge. And...and I can do stuff and Ipes is real brave."

  Leave me out of this. I like the truck. It is, uh…it's pretty, I like rust.

  "No one is saying you can't do stuff," Captain Grey said, "but this is going to be a gun battle..."

  "I've used a gun before," she said, resolutely despite the sudden pain in her stomach. Whenever she pictured the shiny .25 caliber handgun her stomach ached and she felt like throwing up.

  The captain went to rub the stubble on his chin, but pulled his hand away when he felt the grey monster paint. "Yes you have, but this time will be different."

  "But..."

  His eyes flashed. "Enough. You've had your say. I expect you to follow orders like everyone else. You will stay with the truck, is that clear?"

  "Yes sir," she said, dropping her head slightly and sticking out her lower lip. She hadn't yet tried pouting since it was a long shot with a man like Captain Grey; Neil, on the other hand would've melted on the spot.