“There’s a car coming! Two cars! A car and a truck!”
Alan was already coming out the front door cradling three rifles in his arms when Martin and Garth reached the porch steps and each took a weapon from him. Larissa joined them a moment later after climbing down from the platform and Jessie was already pointing a rifle out of a window.
“What does it look like?” Alan asked Garth as he studied the oncoming vehicles through his binoculars.
“There’s a big pickup and what looks like a Hummer.”
“Military? National Guard?” Larissa asked hopefully.
“No, it’s not a Humvee, it’s a civilian Hummer. They’re stopping. I see two people in the Hummer and one in the truck. Passenger in the Hummer is getting out.”
A hundred yards away, Jake turned to Carolyn and told her to stay put but be ready for anything while he made contact. He stepped out of the Hummer, hands empty and well away from his sides. Taking a deep breath, he started for the house. From behind a low stone rampart, Garth let him close to thirty feet before calling out to him.
“You can stop right there! What do you want?”
“Are you Garth?” asked Jake.
Taken by surprise, Garth took a moment before replying.
“How do you know my name? I don’t know you.”
“We’ve been looking for you and Alan, Jessie and Larissa. And Martin.”
Something in the way Jake said his name made Martin’s blood run cold and his skin crawl.
“How do you know our names,” Garth called back, coming to his feet and stepping from cover.
“Chloe and Jerry told us who you are and where to find you.”
Garth spun around and stared at Martin, crouching behind a pile of cordwood.
“You said they were dead!” he accused. “You said you saw them get taken down!”
“It’s a trick! He’s lying,” Martin shouted, but the words sounded hollow even to him.
“No, they’re very much alive,” Jake said reasonably. “Jerry’s been injured, but he’s under a doctor’s care and he’s going to be fine.”
“How did you come to have them?” Garth was still suspicious, but his rifle was no longer pointed at Jake.
“One of our people found Chloe alone on the road. She led her back to Jerry and they got him back to our doctor.”
Martin was sweating, trembling with fright but also with rage. His plan, which had seemed to be working so well, was now exposed as the lie it was and he was desperate for a way out. He came to his feet and began to raise his rifle to his shoulder when he felt cold steel pressing against the back of his neck.
“You can just set the rifle down now, Martin,” he heard Alan’s voice behind him. “Drop your pistol right next to it.”
He dithered for just a moment, then his shoulders sank and he set the butt of the rifle on the ground and Alan took it from him. As he unholstered his pistol and let it slide from his fingers, he knew the game was up and there was no escaping from it.
“They’re both alive?” Jessie cried out in disbelief.
“Chloe’s sixteen, brown hair with a tinge of pink; a frail little thing,” Jake came back. “Jerry’s a singer; he worked with one of our people a few years back.” Seeing the miserable expression on Martin’s face with Alan’s gun at his back, Jake looked directly at him. “They told us everything that happened that day.”
. . .
“I panicked,” Martin said dejectedly as he sat at the big kitchen table, around which all the others had gathered. “The infected were everywhere; coming out of the woods, out of the fields. They were all over the road, dozens of them! I was scared and I panicked.”
Jessie suddenly leapt for him, battering him with her fists, scratching at him with her fingernails until Garth and Larissa pulled her off him.
“You bastard! You miserable, fucking bastard! I slept with you! I did things with you I didn’t even like doing with my own husband, and the whole time you knew what a lousy, miserable, lying bastard you were!”
“Hey, you came to my room,” Martin shouted back, “I didn’t come looking for you!”
Jessie lunged again, but was restrained.
“Don’t think I didn’t want to save them,” he said, delicately touching his bloody cheek where she’d scratched him. “I didn’t think there was any way. There were too many of them. I thought they were doomed already and I didn’t want to die with them.”
“Oh, hell,” moaned Garth. “Take him and lock him in the spare room, would you Alan?”
“I’m sorry we couldn’t meet under better circumstances,” Jake said after Martin was removed.
“No, it’s best we found out what kind of a man he is,” Garth shook his head.
“Well, he’s your concern. We don’t have any say in what happens with him next. The reason we came was to meet you and find out what kind of people you are and maybe ask you to join forces with us.”
“With the three of you?”
“There are more of us back home.”
“How many?” asked Garth.
“Enough to have a real community, but there’s room for more.”
“Okay, I get that you don’t want to be too specific. What if we do join you in this ideal little community?”
“I never said it was ideal,” Jake cautioned. “We have our own problems. We’ve set up in a farmhouse next to a walled community called Hollington…”
Jake and his two friends filled them in on their situation, their tenuous independence from Hollington. They painted as accurate a picture as they could, neither exaggerating the advantages nor minimizing the difficulties. After a period of questions and answers, the three went outside to let the others discuss the issue amongst themselves.
. . .
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but this sounds like a good break for us,” Alan was the first to voice his opinion.
“I think you’re right,” Larissa agreed. “Safety in numbers and all that, you know.”
“I have some misgivings, but I have to admit, it sounds like the plusses outweigh the minuses,” said Garth. “It doesn’t sound like Chloe’s coming back and, given what her relationship with Jerry has become, I doubt he’ll be coming back without her.”
“They have a doctor,” Alan said, “they have walls and guard towers…”
“Walls can be used to keep people in just as easily as to keep them out,” Jessie argued.
“There aren’t enough of us left to go it alone anymore,” Alan countered. “Jerry’s out of the picture and God knows we can’t ever really rely on Martin again. If you’re calling for a vote, then I vote ‘yes’; we go along with them.”
“I vote ‘yes’ too,” said Larissa.
“I guess we really don’t have an alternative. ‘Yes’,” voted Jessie.
“I think this is the right decision,” Garth nodded. “All right, we’ll tell them we’re in.”
“What about Martin,” Jessie’s voice was full of scorn.
“What about Martin indeed,” Garth rejoined. “We have to decide what’s to be done about him.”
“Leave him here,” Jessie put it bluntly. “Leave him locked in the spare room! Abandon him the way he abandoned Chloe and Jerry!”
“No, we’re not going to do that,” Garth dismissed the notion.
“He did keep us all together until Garth and Jerry found us,” Alan admitted. “If not for him, we might not have survived long enough to meet them. Look, I know he can’t ever be trusted with any real responsibility anymore, but there aren’t that many uninfected human beings left; can we afford to lose yet another one?”
“Human being,” Jessie’s voice fairly dripped with disgust.
“No, I think Alan’s right,” Larissa backed him up. “None of us were there; none of us really know how it looked through his eyes. Are you sure, I mean, are you honestly sure you would have acted differently?”
Jessie bit her lower lip and turned her head away, refusing to answer.
“So, we’re taking him with us then?” Garth questioned, looking from one face to another. “All right. Alan, bring him in.”
Looking like a condemned prisoner walking the last mile, Martin dragged into the room followed by Alan.
“We’ve decided that we’re going to go along with Jake and his people,” Garth announced. “As for you, we’re going to let your own conscience judge you. You’re welcome to come along with us, but unless and until you prove yourself, you won’t be trusted with any kind of responsibility or authority. What do you say?”
Obviously stunned, Martin sank into a chair, nearly weeping with relief.
“I- I don’t know what to- Yes! Yes, I want to go with you!” He looked around at each of them and Jessie pointedly turned her back.
The group went out onto the front porch to inform Jake of their decision.
“We all vote to go with you,” Garth told him.
Jake glanced at a very much-subdued Martin and looked back at Garth. He held out his hand and they shook on it.
“How far away are you?” wondered Larissa.
“Not quite a three hour drive,” Tom answered.
“Only three hours?” Garth was amazed.
“If you know the right roads. More and more roads all the time are impassable due to fallen trees or rockslides. Some of them are impossibly clogged with wrecked and burnt out vehicles and there’s at least one where a railroad trestle collapsed on top of it.”
“Yeah, we’ve seen a little of that ourselves,” Garth acknowledged. “After almost a year and a half with absolutely no maintenance, a lot of things are starting to fall apart. Hell, a lot of the infrastructure here wasn’t in all that great a shape even before the infection.”
“If we get started loading things up,” Jake said, “we might be able to make it back before dark. We can put you all up in our farmhouse until you find a permanent home.”
“Hollington?” asked Jessie.
“I don’t know,” admitted Jake. “We haven’t even decided if that’s where we’re going to end up yet.”
Nearly two hours later, the Hummer and truck Jake’s group brought and the two trucks that Garth’s group had acquired were loaded with as much as they could carry and they started out toward the farmhouse. Alan rode in one of the trucks with Martin, Garth and Larissa shared a truck, Pete and Carolyn the third while Jessie rode with Jake in the Hummer.
“So how many of you are there, just at the farmhouse, Jake?” wondered Jessie after a few miles.
“Well, you’ve met the three of us. There’s Pete; he and Carolyn are a couple, there’s Vickie; she and I are a couple, though she and Carolyn also have a history.”
“Wow! That’s being pretty frank.”
“It’s not a secret. None of us is ashamed or embarrassed about any of our relationships. Let’s see, Tom and Liz are husband and wife and they have a daughter, Eve, who’s just about Chloe’s age. Kate and Kim, or, as we call them ‘The Kays’, are also an item. Kim’s the one who found Chloe. She’s a good friend to have but your most horrible nightmare as an enemy, believe me. There’s Hannah Carlton who’s the sole survivor of a large family. Then there’s Bernie, who fell in with the wrong crowd at first but got free of them. He’s the newest member. Good guy. Gay.”
“Well, it doesn’t sound as though you’ve tried to hold anything back,” Jessie laughed.
“As I said, none of us are ashamed of who we are or what we are. ‘A New World Order’ used to be a popular catch phrase among politicians. It’s reality now. We don’t have the time and we can’t afford the prejudices of the past. We can no longer tolerate them. There aren’t enough of us around anymore to single anyone or any group out for discrimination or persecution.”
“I like the sound of that. It’s too bad so many had to die to achieve it.”
“I just hope it’s like that everywhere now.”
“And stays that way,” Jessie added.
. . .
It was well into twilight by the time they reached the farmhouse. Introductions were made all around and sleeping quarters were assigned. Hannah, with Vickie’s help, prepared a welcoming feast of venison steaks, vegetables from their own garden and glasses of fresh milk from their pair of dairy cows.
“Oh, my God, I never thought I’d taste anything like that again,” Garth enthused afterward. “Hannah, I think I’m in love!”
“Oh, get out of here! I mean it, everyone out of my kitchen while I clean up! There’s beer and wine and cider and… other things out back. Go and enjoy yourselves.”
The entire group retired to the yard and found chairs and benches and stools. Bottles of beer and glasses of wine were passed around and the newcomers were overwhelmed by how they were accepted. Even Martin smiled and joined in, though he conspicuously kept his distance from Jessie.
“Oh, now this is the life!” Alan enthused.
“We have our moments,” Pete laughed. “They may be few and far between, but we have them.”
“I haven’t had a beer in I don’t know how long,” Alan smiled. “I forgot how good it tastes. You guys make your own?”
“We had to learn. Real beer ran out over the winter. The stuff we’re finding now is pretty sad. It’s been frozen in the winter and gotten hot in the summer. At least half the bottles and cans we come across now have shattered or burst open and most of it isn’t worth drinking anymore.”
“We’re making our own wine now, too,” Liz added. We haven’t come across a lot of grapes, but Hannah knows how to make elderberry, apple, and even dandelion wine.”
“I noticed a lot of patching up on the outside walls and a lot of new woodwork around the doors and windows,” Garth commented.
“We had some trouble a couple of weeks ago,” Jake admitted. “Some of our people were wounded, some Hollington people died.”
“Is that part of the bad blood between you?”
“I don’t know that I’d call it bad blood exactly, but that’s a part of it. It seems we were expected to join up with Hollington and not be a separate entity.”
“But you don’t want that.”
“I didn’t want that; I’m not so sure anymore. Phil made a lot of sense when he talked about order versus anarchy. If we all work toward separate goals instead of the common good, I don’t see how we’ll accomplish anything as far as rebuilding what we’ve lost.”
“What happens if you absolutely cannot come to terms, if the conditions and restrictions are more than you’re willing to make?”
“That’s a good question. I wish I had a good answer.”
Vickie placed a chair next to Jake, sat down and kissed him.
“Wow, you don’t smell like an old ashtray,” she said in surprise, and kissed him again. “You don’t taste like one either.”
“I’ve been cutting back.”
“It’s about time! I’ve only been after you for a year or more!”
“You still have tobacco? I’m amazed,” Garth said.
“That was one of the first things I stocked up on. I only have eighty-seven cartons left, so I’m trying to stretch it out,” he joked.
“You should give them up altogether,” Vickie frowned. “If you won’t listen to me or Carolyn, you should at least listen to Dr. Vargas. Smoking is bad for you.”
“So I’ve heard. Speaking of which, I can smell a different kind of smoke on you.”
“We’re celebrating,” Vickie declared. “How often do we see new faces around here? Friendly faces, anyway. Besides, you know you always enjoy the benefits later,” she added, stroking his thigh.
“Pot?” Garth looked from Jake to Vickie and back.
“It’s not illegal anymore. We all voted on it,” Vickie smiled.
“Well, you girls voted on it,” Jake chided.
“And we outnumber you. Majority rules.”
“Maybe we should have a recount now that the voting pool has increased,” teased Jake.
“Go ahead. We already have two more ‘yes’
votes.”
“Wait, Larissa and Jessie?” Garth was surprised.
“You’re going to have a good time tonight, too,” Vickie chuckled as she saw Larissa approaching.
Larissa leaned down to take Garth’s hand and, with a smile, led him back toward the house.
“Now, she has the right idea,” Vickie giggled, taking Jake’s hand and pulling him to his feet.
“It looks like the party’s breaking up,” Tom laughed.
“I’d say for some people it’s just getting started,” Pete slapped him on the shoulder as he walked by arm-in-arm with Carolyn.
Tom looked at Liz and raised an eyebrow.
“I wasn’t smoking anything,” she said in her most prim and proper voice. Then she laughed, saying “Eve’s staying with Chloe at Hollington tonight,” and she winked at him and they both went back to their room.
“Martin!” Jessie shouted and he cowered at the tone of her voice. “You’re a stinking, miserable son-of-a-bitch,” she said, grabbing him by the front of his shirt, “but Alan’s passed out and you’re the only unattached straight male available! You and me; now!”
Martin let himself be dragged along, wondering if he should be happy or terrified.
Chapter 22: Negotiation
“So, to sum it up,” Phil was finishing his presentation to the Committee, “I feel fairly confident that they’ll find that the benefits outweigh any concerns they might have and they will agree to become a functional part of our community.”
“And you’ve given them a week to make a decision,” Wyckoff made it a statement rather than a question.
“Yes, they’ll talk it out amongst themselves and then open formal negotiations with us.”
“Negotiations?” Wyckoff raised an eyebrow. “What is there to negotiate? They’re either in or they’re out.”
“I’m afraid it isn’t as cut and dried as that,” Phil put in cautiously. They’ve survived on their own for more than a year and they could, no doubt, continue to do so without our help.”
“I know of four dead comrades who might argue otherwise, if they could.”
The Complete Lethal Infection Trilogy Page 64