She’d acted surprised when he’d slipped up behind her and wrapped his hands around her waist then went to kiss her neck. She acted like she didn’t like it, that she was offended. She’d spun and slapped him.
He’d ran off to his room when what he should have done is slapped her right back and told her things were going to change. He should have taken charge, told them all that he was the oldest and he would be calling the shots from now on. Angry at the memory, Gordon threw his pitchfork on the ground. He didn’t care if Millie hurt her hooves on it or not. He hoped she did, dumb animal. He still seethed at the little tease, one of the others had probably put her up to it. Swan, most likely. She hated him for no reason. That was okay. He hated her back. One way or another there was going to be a change of leadership around here. Lowery’s gave orders, they didn’t take them.
Gordon lashed out at Millie, kicked her hard and she ambled off. He was incensed, working himself into a full-blown rage. He was through cleaning out stalls and doing everything Cody said. He was a survivor, he had lived through the outbreak and he’d done it on his own. He hadn’t had any help. He had as much right as any of them to make decisions. More actually. He was the oldest and he had been born and groomed to be a leader in the community, not a go-fer or shit shoveler. He came from money, prestigious parents and expensive schools. He was their better and deserved to be treated as such. He paced back and forth, getting angrier by the moment. He’d tried to do it their way but that was over. They were going to do things his way from now on. He was the biggest and if he had to, he’d beat the crap out of all of them. He touched the machete handles tucked in his belt, nodded to himself, then set out in search of Cody.
25
Cody & Gordon
Cody and Harper stood in the kitchen of the old house giving Otis a promised treat. He opened the last can of Spam and tossed the jelly coated hunk of compressed meat to his pal. Otis caught it out of the air and gulped it down, waiting expectantly for more, it was his favorite snack.
“That’s the last of it,” Cody said and wiped his hands. “I’ll look for more when we go back into town.”
He poured Otis a bowl of dog food. The Kodiak chuffed, but ate it anyway. It would hold him over until someone brought in some fresh meat. Swan and Donny were getting good at hunting and it was rare when one of them didn’t have something hanging in the storehouse.
Great, Cody thought as he watched Gordon storming towards him. He reeked like dung. How could he get covered in it? All he had to do was scoop it out and dump it in the fertilizer pile. Murray had plans for a big garden in the spring so they were keeping all the droppings together instead of spreading them anywhere out of the way. Cody’s wrinkled nose at the smell pissed Gordon off even more.
“I’m not feeding them or cleaning up after them anymore. We should either move into the town or get some real weapons and a real place to live or send a scout up to my old neighborhood. I told you it was gated and private. Most of houses have solar panels and generators. I have family there, you could probably have your own house. A mansion with a hot tub, not a dump like this! This place is just a flop house, my God, you all sleep in the same room. I can hardly even go in the den anymore because it stinks like animal,” fumed Gordon.
“The town isn’t safe, Gordon.” Cody explained again. “We’ve been over this. It’s empty now but those hordes are on the move. What if a huge one wanders in out of LaCrosse or Cedar Rapids? What would we do then?”
“At least we would be on a main road!” Gordon exclaimed. “At least we’d be somewhere we could get rescued if help comes. They’ll never find us out here.”
“Nobody is coming to save us.” Harper said flatly. “You’re living in a fantasy world. There is nobody else out there with a city like it used to be. Nobody is scouring the countryside looking for survivors. If there are other people, they’re doing the same thing we are, just trying to make it through the winter.”
“But we hear them on the radio!” Gordon practically screamed. “We know there are others.”
“We hear bits and pieces of people talking on CB’s or something.” Cody said. “Murray told us they’re using super powerful radios, probably stuff that was illegal before, and it’s bleeding over onto the emergency channels. We don’t know where they’re at or what they have. It might be only two or three people and they could be anywhere in the world.”
“Fine.” Gordon said. “But we can’t stay here. We need to send somebody up to scout out my old house. I’m telling you, we had security guards and high fences, better than these, and everyone had generators and lots of food. They still have electricity. We could live normal again!”
The twins came in to start dinner and made a face at Gordon when they saw he had tracked dung all over their floor. He ignored the two weirdos.
“Who’s going to go check it out?” Cody asked, trying to get Gordon to see reason. Trying to let him realize he was grasping at straws. “You?”
“Donny is the fastest.” he replied. “He could get up there in a week. Heck, once he finds people somebody there can come get us. They’ll have cars.”
“What makes you so sure they would want you back, Gordy?” Swan asked as she came out of the den holding one of the cubs. “If I were them, I sure as hell wouldn’t.”
“Nobody asked you, dog girl.” Gordon said and glared at her.
Swans lips curled away from her bared teeth and a slow, guttural snarl came from her throat.
Gordon stepped behind the island, putting a little distance between them but he wasn’t finished. He needed to make them see reason.
“Look at her.” he said and pointed. “This place is going to your heads. She thinks she’s a wolf.”
“And look at them.” his angry finger went towards the twins. “Is that normal? They’ve got tattoos all over their bodies and they’re only twelve years old. They look like circus freaks and I’ve seen them eating raw fish with those bears. You’ve got those little kids we rescued starting to act like animals, too. Normal people don’t act like this. Normal people would have you all locked up for child endangerment!”
Gordon had to get it off his chest, had to make them see they were all going crazy, they had to get out of here and back to civilization.
“You’re all turning feral and acting like cavemen. Have you looked in a mirror lately, Cody? You look like an extra on some survivor show. What’s with the beads in your hair and that stupid necklace? This place sucks. The animals suck. My family would be appalled to see me living like this, eating this garbage you call food.” he finished angrily.
“Then don’t eat our cooking.” Annalise said, “make your own.”
Tobias nodded his head and set his jaw. He would get not one bite of their meals anymore. He’d toss it to the zombies first.
Cody was running out of patience, but tried one last time to reason with Gordon, “We aren’t going anywhere. We have a great setup here. Besides, the animals…”
“The animals!” Gordon screamed cutting him off, spittle flying from his lips.
Everyone was against him. Everyone hated him. This argument wasn’t going as planned and he was getting so mad he was out of control, just lashing out.
“Always the damned animals! It’s a goldmine out there and you want to stay here and play with your teddy bear. People are gonna hit the towns to take the food and all the good stuff. Nobody is coming here. We’ll never be found or rescued if we stay here. These stupid animals don’t matter. The zombies don’t eat them, and they can fend for themselves.”
“Then go,” Cody said coldly. “Get your gear and go. You’ll be home in a week.”
He’d had enough. “I won’t stop you, but I won’t be there to save you next time either.”
“Save me? Save me?” Gordon nearly shrieked.
He was livid, more afraid that Cody would tell them how he found him cowering in his own filth than he was of being thrown out. He was ashamed of the others finding out and couldn’t let hi
m say anymore.
“You didn’t save me, I was doing just fine by myself. I don’t need you. I don’t need any of you!”
Harper placed a hand on Cody’s shoulder. “He’s upset, just let him cool off. He’ll come around.”
“You always take his side! He’s hiding from the world instead of trying to find other survivors. All for some stupid promise he made to his dead mama.” Gordon screamed and mimed a shuffling zombie.
Before he’d realized it, Cody shoved Harper aside and swung on Gordon. His fist slammed the other boy hard, Gordon’s lips split open and he fell to the floor. Blood poured freely down his chin and onto his chest. Otis reared up on his hind legs, banged his head against the ceiling and roared, shaking dust down from the rafters. Cody was livid, was tempted to let Otis rip the bastard apart but saw the wide, fearful eyes of Clara staring at him from the den. He put up a calming hand on Otis’ chest and stopped the bear from attacking.
Gordon pushed himself to his feet and stood, fists clenching and unclenching, murderous rage in his eyes. He dropped his hands to his machetes but before he could pull them Swan had a tomahawk in each hand, her fists choked up near the head, ready to slash into him. Annalise and Tobias both had instantly gripped big carving knives and were ready to spring. He stared at Cody with tears of impotent rage in his eyes and blood streaming down his chin. He raised his hand and mimed a pistol. “POW,” he said softly, turned and ran up the stairs to his room.
Cody fought the urge to chase him down and finish kicking his ass. Grab him by the hair and drag him out the gate. Gordon had brought nothing but trouble to the group. He complained about everything, what chores he would do were half assed and he ate twice as much as anyone else. He was careless around the animals, he left tools laying around that could cause injury and they all shied away from him. That spoke volumes to the rest of them.
For some reason, he resented Cody. He’d only tried to help the boy, but he had a chip on his shoulder the size of Kansas. He was always angry and upset whenever he didn’t get his way. They heard him slam the door to his room and tensions eased. Weapons slid back into holsters or knife racks. Otis dropped down to all fours and went back to his favorite spot in front of the fireplace.
“It’s okay, Clara. The boys were just arguing. It’s over now.” Harper kneeled in front of the little girl and pushed hair out of her eyes. “Boys just being boys. You want to help with dinner?”
Donny caught Cody’s eye and turned his body away from everyone else so they couldn’t see what he said. He pointed to himself, made a slicing motion across his neck, pointed upstairs then raised his eyebrows in a question. Cody shook his head and Donny nodded. It was over, it was just a fight. They weren’t savages. They didn’t kill people just because they were mad at them. Cody grabbed a potato and started peeling, a mindless job because his mind was on something else. What Donny had asked scared him a little. If he would have said yes, he had no doubt the silent boy would have walked calmly up the stairs and killed him. If Gordon had pulled his machetes, Swan would have sunk her steel into his head. It was a sobering thought because nothing would have happened to them. No repercussions for murder. No police. No courts. No jail. No nothing except someone would have to drag the body out and bury it or toss it to the coyotes.
His hands shook a little and he had to concentrate to control them. He had the power over life and death. That was a scary thought. Maybe Gordon saw that tonight. Maybe he finally understood the old ways were gone. The problem with Gordon was that he thought he was better than everyone else and had shown disdain for them once he was safe behind the gates. Harper was the only one he wasn’t constantly arguing with and something had changed with that. Even she didn’t stick up for him this time and she had always been the peacemaker. Maybe she’d finally had enough of him too. He wasn’t even mad at him anymore; he was afraid for him. Afraid of what would happen to him if he didn’t change his ways.
26
Murray
Murray sat alone in the lab section of the zoo’s animal care center. He watched the virus cells on the slide under the microscope. He knew what normal cells looked like, according to the pictures in the books. He had some of his own blood on a different slide. This looked nothing like his. There was no healthy cell activity in this sample, just a strange looking glob moving lazily about. He was worried about the animals in the zoo becoming infected if the virus jumped across the species. There was no way they could handle one of the bears or the other carnivores if they became infected and there was a really good chance of exposure since the animals had engaged with the zombies.
He ignored the chomping of the decapitated head in the basket on the counter. He had asked Donny to bring it to him and to keep it to himself. He didn’t want to cause any more stress on the others. They were busy stocking the zoo for winter and gathering wood. Things he wasn’t able to help with, but he felt he had to do something to pull his weight, and this was too important to ignore.
He referenced one of the books from the shelf on animal medicine. He compared the picture of healthy cells to the sample he had taken from a sleeping Otis the night before. Otis appeared healthy with no sign of the foreign invaders in his system. He breathed a sigh of relief.
He had a test in mind, though no way would it be totally conclusive, but with his limited knowledge of viruses and the equipment at his disposal, it was the best he could come up with.
He lifted one of the brown mice from the aquarium. Another gift from Donny, the six mice scurried about seeking cover while he captured one of them. The small furry creature looked at him with its beady eyes and let out a small squeak.
Donny lifted the syringe filled with the zombie blood and injected it into the mouse.
“Sorry, little guy.” he said.
He put a small white band around the rodent’s leg and returned him to the aquarium. He scooped up another mouse and this one was injected with saliva from the undead head still gnashing its teeth in the basket. That wasn’t something he was interested in doing again anytime soon. Even in its decapitated state, the head still wanted to bite, and he’d come close to losing a finger when he drew the sample. Completely disconnected from its circulatory, respiratory, and central nervous system, it was still animated, something still drove it to attack
The second mouse got a blue band and Murray put him back with the others. Now to wait and watch. If they attacked the others and the virus spread to them, the tribe was in a world of trouble.
Murray made sure the lid was secure to the aquarium, popped the top on a warm Dr. Pepper and flipped through the pages of a book he’d found in the house. A novel about repo men in California, something to take his mind off of heavier things. He turned to the dog-eared page he had marked and continued reading.
Murray watched them on and off for hours while he finished his book. He wondered if the author was out there amongst the undead or holed up somewhere safe, either way, he didn’t see a sequel coming anytime soon. The mice showed no signs of aggression, no change in their movements or behavior. Just mice being mice. They were huddled together in one corner of the tank, sleeping. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was rudimentary by any means, but he was pretty sure the virus wouldn’t jump to the zoo animals from battle wounds. He made a mental note to try and get hold of one of the Savage Ones. It would be interesting to see what their blood looked like under the microscope.
27
Gordon
There was an uneasy truce and most of them tried to forget about the fight. The twins would glare at him when he took food from the community dishes they cooked but Cody must have told them not to say anything. Swan pretended he didn’t exist and wouldn’t even look at him. He was fine with that, too. He hated her and the stupid wolves more than all the rest of them combined. All Cody had said the next morning was the new chore list is up. They watched him, waiting to see if he would refuse to do anything, probably hoping he would so they would have some lame excuse to throw him out. He was smar
ter than that, though. His dad had taught him a thing or two. Sometimes you had to do things to lull the competition into thinking you were defeated, that they had won. Sometimes you had to swallow your pride, smile in their face and plot your revenge. When they weren’t paying attention is when you would swoop in with a lower bid or bribe the right official to hassle them with zoning codes or maybe leak those pictures your private investigator took of that mistress in a hotel room. Gordon could play the game. After all, he was a Lowery and the Lowery’s owned this county. He had to bide his time and make his plans. He pretended he’d been taught a lesson but under the cool exterior he was filled with icy anger. Everyday his rage toward Cody grew as he watched him act like the big high and mighty leader. He had dared hit him! He had dared to lay hands on a Lowery. In a normal situation, he’d be in a jail cell and his father would make sure the judge threw the book at him. They were golfing buddies and Judge Brady knew where his bread was buttered. He knew where his campaign contributions came from. Mr. High and Mighty would be facing twenty years of hard labor.
Every day he watched her but always at a distance. She was the one he thought about when he stared at his magazines with a flashlight when everyone else was sleeping. He wondered what she looked like under her clothes. He could never get her alone to talk, to explain that he hadn’t meant anything by grabbing her. He knew she was purposely avoiding him but she couldn’t keep it up forever. She was the oldest girl here and since he was the oldest boy, they should be together. It was only right. Older people had needs, adult needs, and they should be taking care of each other. Surely he could make her understand and see the sense of it.
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