The survivors following Sarah started to feel like they were in safe hands, and they began to ask what happened in the night and why they had to leave. When she told them, there was a mix of responses. Those who knew Barry and knew him well, including Wayne, were devastated to hear what happened to him. Others stayed stone-faced, belying their true feelings of relief, knowing that a dead weight had been lifted from them, though they didn't dare say it.
Curt led them to a church on Fayetteville Street. It was a small one and nothing to look at, but the front was partially shrouded in tall, bustling trees, giving a small semblance of concealment. Curt hopped up the steps and thumped on one of the big wooden doors in a peculiar knock.
A moment later, the door cracked open with the whine of old wood, then Curt motioned to the survivors outside to follow him in.
The foyer of the church was small and cozy and surprisingly clean, and it wrapped around to a hallway on the right leading to various prayer and resource rooms. They all followed him to the end of it, which then cut into the chapel on the left.
A dozen more survivors waited for them inside, sitting about on some of the pews or up and performing various mundane tasks. Thick blankets lay across some of the pews for beds, and Sarah didn't know how much food they had, but there was enough room to house a couple hundred people if need be. Supplies sat out partially strewn about in a semi-organized mess, and the pulpit on the stage was left spotless, as if Curt commonly orated at it. She had been sizing him and the entire church up as soon as they got there, protectively deciding if she and her own would be safe. But everything seemed to be in good order, even if a little drab.
"Who the hell are all these people?" someone on the other side of the chapel called. "No way are we taking them in!"
Sarah turned her head, for a moment wondering why Carly's voice had suddenly changed to a man's.
The man in question was a big fellow, very tall and very burly. He would still be a shadow compared to the man she and Wayne saw in the woods, but he towered over everyone else in the room, and she scrutinized his short and curly salt-and-pepper hair and his mostly-shaved face to convince herself that he wasn't Kenny.
"Quiet down, Doug," Curt said. "They were out in the street. Would've got slaughtered if we didn't get to 'em."
"Then this is temporary, I hope," Doug said, lifting his chin in the air like he considered himself better than the rest of them.
Curt ignored him this time and went over to Sarah and Wayne. "Don't mind him, he's usually harmless. Just gets a little worked up sometimes."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," Sarah replied, stealing a glance at Carly, who was standing at the back of the chapel by herself.
"Like I said," Curt continued, "we've got plenty of room and a decent amount of food. You're free to stay for a while, though you'll have to pitch in and pull your weight around here, of course. But other than that we run a pretty tight ship. We've been safe here for a long time without any problems, and as long as everything goes smoothly, I don't foresee any problems to come. Since we're two groups going into one, I think it's important for you to still lead your own group, but since we're under the same roof, I hope you'll let me order your people too. 'Course, I'd extend the same courtesy to you over my group."
"The hell she will," Doug piped up, coming over to them.
"Oh Doug, would you knock it off?" Curt said, agitated.
Doug got right up in Sarah's face and puffed his chest. She stood her ground and Wayne protectively came up beside her, scowling at the man. Doug looked down at both of them with a smug expression on his face. "Just so you know, you ain't tellin' me shit, lady."
Sarah remained stoic as she felt his warm and stale breath roll over her nostrils. She turned her head to Curt and matter-of-factly said, "I didn't know you allowed pets in here."
This got a rise out of Doug and he lunged forward, his humongous chest bumping Sarah off balance. Wayne immediately stepped in and shoved him back, despite his tremendous weight. Doug staggered and Curt stepped in, grabbing on to one of his meaty arms with both hands.
"Fuck sakes Doug, that's enough!" Curt said.
Sarah stayed calm and watched the steaming anger on Doug's face dissipate as Curt tried to calm him.
"Did you finish laying down that tile yet?" Curt asked him, holding a hand against his chest.
Doug sluggishly took his gaze away from Sarah and moved it to Curt. "No."
"Well get to it!" Curt said, giving him a little shove. A surprising amount of vitriol accompanied his voice and it was unexpected to see it come out of such a small man.
Doug gave a final look of contempt at them then turned and stormed off. Curt just shook his head and left, muttering under his breath and leaving Sarah and Wayne to themselves.
"You all right?" Wayne asked her.
She nodded. "Thanks for having my back."
"So you think this guy's on the level?"
"Who, Curt?"
"Yeah."
Sarah considered. "Yeah, I think he's all right. He did good by us already, so there's that."
"I think so too," Wayne said.
As the morning ticked away, both Sarah and Curt tended to their own groups. The people started to mingle together, introducing themselves and sharing their stories. Before long it was apparent to everyone (outside of Doug and Carly) that they were all good people and they would get along just fine. Sarah thought about Curt's offer of still maintaining leadership, even over his own people and having him do the same for hers. It was a strange concept and one that she wasn't sure would work, but if nothing else she would lead by his example and see how it went.
Curt shared some food and water with her group and they all gratefully ate and drank, sitting on the old and creaky pews. After they finished, Susanna stood up and came over to Sarah. The others who had been with her in the repair shop stood up a moment later and sheepishly came up behind her.
"We're leaving," she said.
Sarah was taken aback. "What?"
"We're going to find Derek," Susanna said.
"He's gone," Sarah told her. "You're not going to find him."
A wave of anger came over Susanna's face and Sarah could see that she was still devastated about Derek's disappearance. She pointed a finger in Sarah's face. "Don't you say that about him."
"I wanted to find Derek more than anyone," Sarah replied, "but I had to put the safety of the group as a whole first. I hope you understand that."
"We appreciate everything you've done for us," she replied, "but what you did to Derek was not right. He was one of us and we would never abandon him like that. You left him to fend for himself and then you got us into one mess after another. I know your heart's in the right place, but you have no idea what you're doing, and we won't follow you anymore."
And with that Susanna and the others turned and left, disappearing down the hallway and exiting the church, leaving only Carly remaining from Sarah's original party.
A tightness wrapped itself around Sarah's throat like a snake. Her face turned red and she felt every eye in the chapel on her, including Doug who had come back from re-tiling some floor elsewhere in the church and was now standing at the back of the chapel grinning like a madman at her. All the other faces around were shocked and embarrassed, but none as much as hers.
Carly watched her from afar. Although a small part of her was happy to see some of the large group go, she felt sad because she had known all of them for a number of months, and she strangely thought of her old favorite bands whose members had been switched out one by one over time until the original group was unrecognizable. Her heart felt heavy, and it felt heavier still as she saw the embarrassment on Sarah's face. She instantly felt like she had been too harsh on her and moved to comfort her. But when she saw Wayne put his hand on Sarah's shoulder and whisper soothing words into her ear, she faltered. She didn't know why but somehow that made her upset. Jealous. She turned suddenly to one of the other survivors from Curt's group and asked where
the washroom was, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.
All of the other survivors slowly turned their attention back to what they were doing and Curt sauntered over to her and Wayne.
"Someone from your group go missing?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said.
Curt nodded to himself, almost like she confirmed something he had long suspected. "There's something going on," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"I've had a few of my people go missing as well. Just one here or there, but they just vanish without a trace."
"And you've never found them?" Sarah asked.
"No. Usually it would be someone who was outside of the church on a supply run or something... sometimes it would just be someone poking their head out the door for two seconds. Then just gone. Poof." He snapped his fingers. "That's why we try to go out as a large group or stay hunkered inside now."
"Do you think it has something to do with those zombies?" she asked.
"The new ones?"
"You've seen them?"
"Yeah I have. Saving you from them this morning wasn't the first time we've seen 'em. They don't appear too often, but they seem to be popping up more and more."
"Where are they coming from?" Wayne asked.
"Beats me," Curt said. "It's hard to find a pattern, but I have seen a few of them around the Sheriff's office a couple blocks over. I think they're coming from somewhere in that neighborhood."
"I think we should go find out," Sarah said.
"Well all right, then," Curt said with a smile. "Tonight it is."
Sarah shook her head. "Not at night."
Curt nodded in reply. "Yes at night. I know it seems more dangerous, but even those new zombies got shit for vision. As long as we stay quiet and hidden, it will be the best way to track where they're coming from."
"I'll want to bring Carly with us, too," Sarah told him, pointing her out.
"The four of us, then," he said. "Sounds like a plan."
"Five of us."
They all turned their heads to see Ron standing next to them. He was a far cry from the winded, red-faced mess they found him in the night before; he looked calm and composed and even had a little smile on his face.
"Five it is," Curt agreed.
9
The Shadow Man
Dusk settled over Raleigh and then night. The milky orange twilight ceded to blistering blues and smoky blacks. They watched it all, waiting with an anticipation they couldn't shake to go out and slip through the blanket of darkness. When the front door to the church lumbered open, the howling wind whipped in their faces and the survivor guarding the door from the inside watched uneasily as they left his company and he closed the door firmly behind them. The chilly cold chewed at them even through their coats and they wasted no time in moving down the steps and fleeing into the street.
Curt led them from Hargett to Salisbury Street. Sarah, Wayne, Carly and Ron accompanied him. Carly had grudgingly accepted to go, but she made her disapproval very clear to Sarah. Ron hadn't offered up any more details about why he was so keen on coming with them, other than to say he wanted to pay them back for helping him. He had seemed confident and even happy to go on the trip leading up to it, but as soon as they prepared to set out, he seemed to get cold feet. Wayne noticed it immediately and passed a quiet word to Sarah about it, suggesting that it wouldn't be wise to bring him along, but she decided to let him come and see how he did.
The five of them stayed in a tight pack as they moved through the downtown core. They kept their weaponry light with only pistols on a few of them, and two flashlights for the rest. Sarah's blonde hair was pale in the moonlight and looked like Death had stroked its icy fingers through it. She shivered more than she should have and a sense of dread lingered in all of them.
"There it is," Curt said to them, pointing down the street as they continued along Salisbury. They followed his finger to the large building that used to contain the Wake County Sheriff's office. "Been seeing them in various parts around these next couple blocks." He was silent after that and steadfastly moved on, not taking his eyes off the path ahead.
"It's colder than I expected," Ron said quietly.
"What?" Sarah asked, snapping out of the trance that she was in.
"Colder than I thought," he repeated, looking into her eyes.
His voice was deeper than before, deeper than she expected coming from him, and his face was fuller and his eyes more aged. There was a wisdom to him that she hadn't noticed, and it suggested that there was more to him than the cowardly display he demonstrated earlier.
Wayne kept an eye on Curt, impressed with the way he ran his camp and impressed with the way he was leading them now. He seemed like a simple and honest man, and Wayne liked that about him. It took a lot to impress Wayne, and he gave the man his full confidence to lead them as he took up a spot on the side of the group and kept his eyes open for any movement in the dark streets.
They stopped in front of the Sheriff's office and gave it a look up and down. It was a big building. Tall, too. But the lights were out, just like everywhere else. All the glass on the front of the building was intact, and Curt tugged on the doors, but it was locked up tight.
"Think they're coming from in there?" Wayne asked.
Curt started to shake his head but then paused to reconsider. "I don't know. I don't think so. Couldn't tell you why; just feel it in my gut."
Wayne nodded to himself, knowing that that was something to be trusted more than anything else. "Where, then?"
"Ain't that the million dollar question," Curt replied.
"Where do you usually see them around here?" Sarah asked.
Curt stepped back from the doors of the Sheriff's office and looked up and down the street. "Oh, I'd say more to the south," he said, pointing. "It's only been in the last month that they've shown up, so I've only seen a few of them."
"Have you seen anything else lately?" she asked as the five of them continued down the road.
"Like what?"
"Like, any strange people? Guys in black military gear?"
He shook his head, confused. "No, I definitely haven't seen anything like that. What are you trying to tell me?"
Sarah and Wayne exchanged an uneasy look just thinking about it. "We came from the edge of town to the north and we saw some men in the woods. They looked like special forces or mercenaries. It seemed like they were doing experiments on the new zombies, almost like they even created them or something."
Curt looked at her incredulously. "Well don't that make things a bit more interesting," he said. He paused in the road, suddenly seeming skittish. "Flashlights off," he said.
Carly and Ron flicked them off as their bodies stiffened in fear from the sudden order.
"Let's just be as careful as possible," Curt added. "If there's any trouble, we go back. Period."
They all agreed and continued on in the darkness, letting only the moonlight highlight their surroundings.
"So what's your story?" Sarah asked Ron, her voice quieter than before.
"Not much to tell," he said. "What do you want to know?"
"Where are you from? Any family?"
He shook his head. "No family, really. Just a sister that I haven't talked to in years. I grew up in Queens, but I was living here in Raleigh for a few years BZ."
"BZ?"
"Before Zombies," he said with a chuckle. "Sorry, dad joke."
"Hey, I like that one," she said. "What about work?"
"I was in pharmaceuticals, mostly. How about you?"
"Real estate," Sarah replied. "Not much of a market for it anymore."
"Not true! I'm looking to buy," he said with a laugh. "I got chased out of the house I was staying in by zombies and that's when I came across you guys. Stroke of luck, I guess. Haven't seen any other humans around in ages."
"So if you've been in Raleigh this whole time, do you know anything about what I'm talking about? About the new zombies or these military guys? Ever
seen a tall man dressed all in black?"
"No, that's a new one for me," he said. "I never poked my head out of the house when I didn't have to, so there could have been a Million Man March going past my front door and I wouldn't have known."
Carly walked in the back of the group, staying quiet. The unseasonable cold of the night was quickly becoming overwhelming to her, but it was her memories of being in the woods by herself, burying Wes's body, and what happened to her, that really made her shiver. The thought made her a little queasy, but she kept it together and focused on her feet to take her mind off it.
"There's one!" Curt cried in a shrill whisper. He pointed a few blocks down the road at a dark figure standing on the corner. It was just a black silhouette from their vantage point, but it shambled and shifted clumsily on the sidewalk, and there was no doubt that it was one of the many undead.
"Is that the new kind?" Ron asked.
"Don't know," Curt said.
They all huddled against the building next to them, using a bus stop in front of them as cover. The wind swept down the street in a fierce gust, blowing their hair all over the place and brushing past their skin like shards of glass. Their teeth chattered and they all hugged themselves for warmth as their eyes were dead set on the zombie. They watched every movement, large and small, that it made. As if the wind had pushed it, it stumbled out into the street. At first it meandered around in no particular direction, and they waited and watched.
"It is," Curt said, sure of himself now. "That's one of the new ones."
"How can you tell?" Wayne asked.
"You see the way it's twisting its torso?" Curt said. "The way it starts and stops? It's very jerky, and its arms are more animated."
Sarah nodded along to each thing Curt said, remembering the first aggressive new zombie she saw outside the shop.
"How I tell is if you can picture the zombie covered in ants and trying to shake them off, then it's a new zombie," he added.
The five of them stayed silent as they waited to see what the zombie would do. It was just standing alone in the middle of the street now, with nothing else in sight; no other zombies, and no soldiers, nor any sign of the huge man in black with the purple skull for a face.
Zombie Apocalypse Box Set 2 Page 9