Aftermath (7 page)

Lee met her gaze. “What makes you think that I’m not?”

“
You never seem bothered,” She straightened out Abby’s dirty shirt as the younger girl began falling asleep in her mother’s arms. “Sure, you get a little intense every now and then. But it’s like it all just doesn’t matter to you. Like you know something we don’t know.”

Lee smiled ruefully. “No. I’m finding out I know very little.”

“
Then what? Are you not scared?”

“
No,” Lee leaned back a bit to take the stress off his stitches. “That’s not it, I assure you.”

“
Hm.” She looked thoughtful. “I thought you were too well-trained to get scared.”

He had to chuckle. “You know, they did a study one time. They strapped heart-monitors to two Special Forces soldiers about to make a combat jump. One soldier was brand new, fresh out of training. The other soldier was a six-year veteran. So, as they’re approaching the drop point, the younger soldier is pacing back and forth, checking and rechecking his gear. He’s nervous. He can’t stand still. All the while, the veteran is just sitting there with his eyes closed like he’s sleeping. Like nothing bothered him.

“
After the mission, they found that there was virtually no difference in the heart rates between the veteran and the rookie. They were both scared. The only difference was that the veteran was used to being scared, so it didn’t show as much.”

Lee looked at her again. “So, yes. I get scared, whether it shows or not.”

The six people sat in a tense but thoughtful silence. Harper and Miller guiltily watched the four outsiders as they sat quietly and contemplated their strange situation. Eventually Doc returned with four small bowls of oatmeal. He explained with a shy smile, “It’s all that was left in the pot.”

Due to sparing supplies, whoever did the cooking had mixed more water and less oatmeal, creating a thin gruel with a little salt to give it some flavor. Despite the odd taste, the group still ate hungrily. Only after Lee finished his small bowl did he realize how hungry he was and remembered losing last night’s dinner during the attack.

Rice and beans. Thin oatmeal.

No meat to speak of.

These people are starving,
Lee thought.

Supplies were low and nearly unattainable with Milo’s gang running amok outside the gates. The hordes of infected kept hunting from being practical. Lee thought about the possibility of trapping, but to feed the entire community, snares and traps would have to be set for something large, like a deer or wild boar. This was not impossible, but trapped animals create a lot of noise and Lee thought that even if a trap was sprung successfully, the infected would get to the animal first and rip it to pieces. Even if they left anything behind, it would be tainted.

His thoughts wandered from hunting and trapping to water. The community seemed to have enough water to get by. Lee wondered about a stream in the area, or possibly a large rain cistern, either pre-existing or built by the community. Any streams in the area were likely contaminated with industrial pollutants, but the heavy summer rains would come soon, riding the tails of whatever hurricanes were spinning up the coastline and rolling inland to central North Carolina. That would probably wash most of the pollutants away and make the streams slightly more potable, at least after a good boiling.

In the back of Lee’s mind he knew he was setting himself to thinking of these things. The business of survival kept the mind occupied while the fear of failure swam like unseen sharks below a rickety lifeboat. Lee was determined to just keep rowing. It was impossible to be lost at sea forever. Eventually you had to make landfall.

But the fear escorted him wherever he went.

It waited for him to give up and give in, and then it would consume him completely.

An hour passed. The light outside the trailer went from that dull, slate-gray to the bright and lively glow of the morning sun. Lee noted that the temperature was staying fairly mild for late July, and he guessed it would be a mid-eighties day.

Harper and Miller found themselves some chairs and exchanged quiet small talk. Angela and Abby curled up on another cot. Abby fell asleep quickly, but Angela lay with her eyes open, staring vacantly at nothing. Sam got up and paced irritably.

People passed by and looked in with furtive glances. Lee watched them from the edge of his cot and saw a range of emotions. Some were angry. Most were curious. All were suspicious. When they walked by alone, they quickly looked away. When they walked by in pairs, they whispered amongst themselves. In groups they stared brazenly and spoke loudly.

“
Is he a spy?”

“
He killed Kara.”

“
He let the infected in.”

“
Why would he do that?”

“
He promised us supplies.”

“
That’s bullshit.”

Lee began to notice the trickle of passersby thickening, everyone going in the same direction: toward the square. The steady bustle of people conducting their everyday business began to meld and grow into the semi-excited rumble of a crowd and Lee could not shake the image of an old western town where all the ladies in their pretty dresses showed up to watch a guilty man hang.

It wasn’t long before Bus appeared.

He nodded to Harper and Miller, who both stood up languidly and stretched. Then he walked to Lee and stood before him with his hands clasped neutrally in front of him. He looked at Angela and her daughter, and then Sam, who now looked defiantly back at him. Then his gaze found Lee again.

“
You need to understand something,” he said. “I don’t run the show around here. These people, they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing. But they like to think that they do. So when the shit hits the fan, they all look to me to tell them what to do. I’m a security blanket. They think,
If all else fails, Bus will know what to do
.
”

He looked bitter. “But I don’t control them. And right now there are fifty people outside that are making up their mind about you. Kara’s family is convinced that you’re with Milo and you sabotaged our fence—”

“
That’s ridiculous!” Angela hissed.

Bus looked at her. “I know it is. I’m not saying that’s what I believe, I’m saying that’s what is being said. A lot of people are buying it because...well, it’s easy to blame the new people. I just wanted to let you know what the sentiment was like out there.”

“
Is this a trial?” Lee said, quietly.

Bus shook his head. “Just a meeting. Not everybody has had a chance to speak with you. Most of the people in camp are forming their opinions from word-of-mouth. I figured having you stand up in front of everyone would be best, that way they could form their own opinions.”

Lee nodded. “And what should I do?”

“
Answer their questions. Hopefully they believe you.”

“
No one’s going to believe me, Bus.” Lee lowered his voice. “Not unless someone inside Camp Ryder sides with me.”

“
Captain, some of the people already believe you. Most of them
want
to believe you. You give them something to hope for.” Bus scratched his neck. “But I can’t take sides right now.”

“
Why not?” Sam suddenly appeared by Lee’s side. “You said you believe us!”

“
It’s complicated,” Bus said flatly. “This place isn’t as unified as it may seem. There are people here that don’t agree with how I’m doing things, and they will use my siding with you as a sign of disloyalty and turn the camp against me.” He sighed. “I don’t like playing political games. I’ve never been good at them. But I also can’t just stand by and watch someone destroy us from the inside. I’m sorry, but I have to stay neutral.”

“
Bus,” Lee stood up from his cot. “Just promise me that we can leave unharmed, if it comes to that.”

Bus thought for a little longer than Lee was comfortable with. He eventually nodded his head, but despite the gesture, Lee didn’t think it was a promise that Bus was going to be able to keep.

***

The people gathered in moody silence. They stared with stony faces as Lee approached, flanked by Harper and Miller and led by Bus. Behind them, Angela, Abby, and Sam followed with Doc and Jenny.

Lee scanned the crowd and found Kara’s father and brother conspicuously absent.

Standing before them, Lee felt silly in the hand-me-down garb. It was difficult enough to convince people of his mission when he was wearing his full battle rattle, let alone when he was clad in only a smiley-face t-shirt and some athletic shorts. It did not lend to his credibility.

Bus stood between Lee and the people of Camp Ryder and shifted his weight to one leg. “Alright, folks. Regardless of what you believe, let’s try to keep this orderly and decent. This is Captain Lee Harden, and the woman there is Angela and the two kids are Abby and Sam, if you haven’t met them already. I know there’s been a lot said. Rumors tend to fly pretty quickly around here, but we need to be reasonable. This man has offered us something, and we need to figure out whether we’re going to trust him and accept it, or whether we want him to leave our camp.”

Bus took a moment to moisten his lips and scratch his beard. “Now that everyone knows what we’re doing here, ya’ll can ask what you need to ask, but let’s do it one at a time.”

Almost immediately a hand shot up and Lee thought
Oh boy...here we go.

“
Yeah,” Bus pointed to the raised hand. “Go ahead, Keith.”

Keith was an older man, possibly in his mid-sixties, with a thin head of gray hair, a craggy face, and thin features. He wore a pair of canvas overalls that looked like they’d seen better days even before the FURY pandemic.

Acknowledged, Keith lowered his hand and stuck it in the pocket of his overalls. He gave Lee a scrutinizing stare, up and down, as though he was learning everything he needed to know about Lee simply by his body language.

“
I guess I’ll go ahead and say it, since most of us are thinking it.” Keith said. “You don’t strike me as some secret government super-soldier sent to save us all. You look...pretty normal. S’pose what I’m getting at here is, if you’re such hot shit, where’s your guns? Where’s your uniform? Where’s all these supplies you’re supposed to have?”

There was a murmur of assent from the crowd.

Everyone wanted an answer to that one.

“
That’s a fair question,” Lee said, trying to take it in stride. “I’ll be completely honest with you. I’m no super-soldier, but I am good at what I do. If you want to know where my equipment is, I will tell you. It’s in a bunker twenty feet below the ashes of my house, which Milo burned to the ground.” He quickly added, “I have access to more supplies, I just…”

The crowd grumbled disapprovingly.

A new speaker stepped forward, this one a woman with pale skin and dark black hair pulled back into a ponytail. “But you haven’t given us any proof. Where are these supplies you keep talking about?”

“
I’ve been here for a day,” Lee said, trying not to show irritation. “I haven’t exactly had a chance to make the trip just yet, but when I do...”

“
Why didn’t you just take them with you?” It was a male voice. “Why didn’t you bring your supplies here?”

Lee began to feel uncomfortable. He didn’t like being put on the spot, and despite what Bus said, it didn’t seem like many people believed him. “Part of my job is to help survivors. Angela and her daughter were trapped. When I set out to help them, I didn’t bring all the equipment with me because it would have weighed me down. When I returned home, I found my house burned to the ground. I couldn’t go get a refill on supplies because I needed to find a safe place for them first.”

Angela spoke up this time, hesitantly. “It’s true. Abby and me, we were trapped on the roof of our house. Captain Harden saved us, but when he was doing that, some men took his truck and they found his house. We hiked back, but Captain Harden’s house had been burned to the ground.” She paused for a moment and nodded at Lee. “I didn’t believe it at first either. But Captain Harden knows what he’s doing. If you’d seen him fight, you’d believe him too.”

“
How do we know you’re not with Milo?” someone shouted.

The crowd got louder, everyone clamoring together.

“
What if you’re spies?”

“
Is this all just a trick?”

Lee took a deep breath while Bus cast an icy stare out into the crowd but remained silent. Eventually the gathering quieted, and another person said, “Did you sabotage our fence?” This time the question was met with more of a murmur than a shout.

“
No.” Lee said simply, because he knew any other, more complicated answer would be seen as dodging the question.

“
Can you prove you’re not with Milo?”

Lee was about to answer when Miller stepped forward. “Can I say something?”

Bus nodded and the people looked at Miller expectantly.

Miller turned to address them. “I don’t know where this rumor started about the captain being with Milo. I don’t know whether the captain has all the things he says he has. But I was there when he and Angela and those two little kids were runnin’ from Milo. I know I saw Milo’s guys tryin’ their damnedest to shoot the captain. I know I saw the captain pull himself through rusty nails just to get away. So if you were to ask me whether he’s with Milo or not, I would hafta say no.”