Aftershock: A Collection of Survivors Tales (18 page)

Things couldn’t have gone better during our first week away from the island. The weather was perfect, as it is in late Spring. I wasn’t sure she would come with me. All those weeks I spent planning and sneaking things into the boat, but I never told her what I was doing. She was friendly with me, more than she was with her other guards, but we were not friends. I took a huge chance, and it paid off.

“Tim can I ask you a question?” she probed.

“Anything. We are in this together kiddo.”

“Why did you do it? Why risk everything to save me? You could have just left by yourself and they may not have even noticed you were gone. Or they could have figured that you were killed in the breach. Now you brought me along, and invited a mess of trouble. You know he is going to come after me, he has too big of an ego to let this slide. You made this so much more dangerous by bringing along.”

“I thought you were going to ask one question,” I replied with a smile. I knew she would ask me these questions, but I never really figured out what I would tell her. I was going to have to wing it. “Jessica, I watched you since you were bitten. I couldn’t figure you out. You never looked scared. Always carried yourself with pride, even after he decided to lock you away and treat you as his own personal sex slave. I knew long before that though, I knew I had to save you. I was trapped too, but I didn’t care what happened to me. Then I saw you, and knew I had someone to fight for. “

She smiled, then her head fell into her hands. “I was never that brave. Inside I was terrified. I hated the way he looked at me. Then he started touching…” she trailed off.

I didn’t push.

“I felt ill every day. I made the choice to act like it was alright, but it wasn’t. A piece of me died every time. I had no other choice as far as I could see. There was nowhere to hide. He was going to take me if I let him, or if I didn’t. What choice did I have?” She trailed off again.

“No one can ever judge the decisions you made.” I stated. “You were in an impossible situation, with no right or wrong answers. Life is funny like that. It isn’t black and white. Instead, it is grey and muddy, and you end up covered in a mess. Getting through it, that’s the important part. You never cracked. You are so much stronger than I am. “

“I never felt strong.” She sighed.

“You may not have, but it was obvious to the rest of us that you are. You are by far the strongest woman I have ever met. That made you worth risking my life for.”

“That sounded like a line from one of my books.” She giggled.

“Cheesy? Yea, I guess, but true.” I snickered.

From that moment on she was relaxed around me. She must have been so worried what my intentions were. I never thought of that in my preparations. Taking her from one man, and having her trapped with another, only in a much smaller space. Only I didn’t want to father a baby with her, so that was a plus. I couldn’t imagine wanting to bring a child into this world. Even if they had the chance of being immune, they still could be eaten alive.

Vincent had told the rest of us about the flyer a few days before I set off the breach. He had taken it off of some people who had made the trip over from the mainland. As soon as their boat docked they were asked if anyone had ever been bitten before and recovered. They responded as most would with a laugh at its impossibility. This led to them being shot and stripped of all useful supplies. There was no quarantine zone for newcomers. Not unless there could be another woman to try to make a baby.

I wondered what would have happened if another man was immune. My best guess is that Vincent would have him killed, and anyone who had the knowledge that he existed. Another immune male would take away his savior status, and we can’t have that. So, the flyer was found on these refugees and Vincent saw an opportunity to expand his kingdom. His two most trusted men were sent to find this mainland colony. Earl was not thrilled to be pushed out of the safe zone, but he would never disobey Vincent. Eddie was more than happy to take the assignment. He would do anything to prove his loyalty and value to his master.

They had taken off four days before I set off the breach. I decided to give us a bit of space, and lucky for us I was in the room when they had discussed the route they would be taking. Earl made a few copies of the flyer. They wanted to make sure that they had backups in case the two of them didn’t make it back. What a morbid thought, making copies for your replacements. That was how I got my hands on a copy. I was asked to deliver them to the office and slid one off of the pile.

Now here we are drifting along down some cedar water creek. Quietly making our way south towards the colony. The dead haven’t paid much attention to us. We only had to put down three so far. The woods are filled with them, but they have been ignoring the boat covered in reeds as it floats past them. If we can keep the pace we are making right now, we will be at the place in no time. I don’t want to be overly optimistic about this, but things couldn’t be going better.

I took a good, long look at myself in the reflection from the jeep’s windshield. Pretty hilarious. I looked like I belonged in some post-apocalyptic science fiction movie. I started to chuckle, then I realized I might very well be in some post-apocalyptic science fiction movie. Not as much fun as it sounds.

Nevertheless, I looked the part. Dressed in black fatigues with a rifle over my shoulder and a jeep full of random gear. Mad Max; eat your fucking heart out. Quick before the zombies do.

Anyway, turns out I was in the CDC building in Virginia. Amazing what you can find out by looking at mail strewn all over the floor of an office. Fair warning, you may have to move aside the body of a guy in a lab coat with a pistol in his hand and a giant hole in the back of his head. Oh, and it is also going to smell really bad. Olfactory discomfort aside, you can gain a lot of valuable information, like your current location. This will come in handy when you decide to follow the advice of a flyer you found in a parking lot outside the government building you have been held in for an unknown amount of time. When this flyer gives you the location of a camp of some kind where you may be able to see another human being that won’t try to eat you alive, well you need to know the start point of your little trek…

Jesus, I think I’m cracking up.

I also found a GPS unit that seemed to still be functioning so that would do to get me started, but I have a backup map book with alternate routes already marked out. The trick is going to be getting out of Richmond. If I could get out of the city then I could pretty much run north parallel to I-95 for three hundred or so miles. I couldn’t pretend to know how long it was going to take. My best guess would be somewhere between six hours and a month. Depending, of course on how many people I had to kill between here and New Jersey…

We finally pulled the caravan off the road after what must have been fifty miles. Two of the trucks were dangerously low on gas. We had several cans in the back of the van but the idea was to see if more could be scouted before dipping into our reserves. We pulled into the woods down what looked like an old logging road. We felt that it would be unlikely that we would run into the dead out here, but a lack of vigilance may be what put us in this position in the first place.

I decided not to argue with Daniel over the radio, to wait instead until we could discuss things in private. The group had been through enough and to see those they had chosen as their leadership at odds with each other wouldn’t do anyone any good. Suffice to say, the moment Daniel and I are alone, I may very well… I cannot pretend that I would pose any physical threat to Daniel. He is far better at violence than I am, but if the opportunity were to present itself, I am not entirely certain that I would not take advantage of it. Perhaps if he were to turn his back, I could get the drop on him.

How could things have gone so wrong, so quickly? So many dead, so much lost, and for what? Daniel’s little power play lead an entire army of those things back to us. We would have been fine if he hadn’t chosen to be so rebellious. We had an agreement! I told him it was too risky. I have not felt this kind of anger toward another human being in a very long time. I want to wrap my hands around his throat and crush the life out of him. Not very Christian, I admit, but his mistake is inexcusable. Perhaps I should avoid speaking to him until we reach our ultimate destination lest my anger get the better of me and we end up in a physical altercation. I imagine this would be even worse for morale than for the Townies to see us arguing.

Can we even call ourselves the Townies anymore? Our town is gone. If I close my eyes I can see those things wandering the streets still feasting on the bodies of our fallen brothers and sisters.

I cannot even begin to think about what this may do to Max. To be so young and to have been through so much already… He is truly a special child to be so strong, but still, all this must take a toll on him. How much more can he possibly take? How much more can any of us take?

That bastard is lucky I didn’t fucking kill him. I sat fuming in the back of the pickup waiting for the Rev to come out of the van. We gassed up the vehicles and regrouped as best we could. The townies were understandably shitting themselves. A lot of questions going around. Where were we going? How would we get there? Did so-and-so make it out alive? People counted their losses and mourned the dead right there in the woods.

I passed out some water and some rations, tried as best I could to console people and to tell them how proud I was that they fought as well as they did, not that it mattered. We lost. I took stock of what and who had made it out. Three vans, two pickups, a Jeep, and the delivery truck. That last one held most of our bug out supplies so at least there was that. Still no sign of the Rev. I half hoped that he hadn’t gotten out, but I heard him talking to the driver of the pickup over the radio on the way here. Sniveling, weak-assed little pansy probably didn’t have the balls to face these people after what happened. That’s okay. He would have to come out eventually. And when he did, I would be on him.

We had a decent amount of ammo and plenty of weapons, rifles, handguns, a few shotguns even, but we were out in the open now. Vulnerable on all sides, and not just exposed to the dead. I wouldn’t have been surprised if we ran into my old Army unit and got ourselves robbed and/or killed by that shithead captain of mine. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the ass. Aside from them there must be hundreds of other assholes running around out here that we have to worry about.

We had enough food for at least a few days, maybe a week if we stretched it out. Water was going to be a problem real quick though. All totaled about twenty-five people made it out of the town, ten men, eight women, and seven kids, eight counting Max, but I wouldn’t count him as a kid. Then there’s me and the Rev, but I wouldn’t count him in with the men either.

So I was moving through the ranks, consoling some of the guys, congratulating others when I saw him. The Rev had finally crawled out of the van he was hiding in and was talking to one of the younger couples. As I didn’t see their kid with them and the girl was crying pretty hard, I figured out what they were talking about pretty quick. I waited for him to move away from them and soon as he got to his feet, I charged.

I screamed at the top of my lungs just before I tackled him to the ground, all the anger that had been building for months just sort of gushed out. We hit the ground with a flat thud and before he knew what was going on, I was pounding my fists into his fucking face. He tried to push me off, then he tried to cover up. I heard gasps and a few screams behind me but I didn’t care.

“THIS WAS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT,” I screamed as I pounded away on his ribs and face. “ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!?!?”

I hit him a few more times and rolled off onto my back panting and, I think, crying a little. I heard his gurgling breaths so I knew I hadn’t killed him. Lucky bastard. The people around us just kind of stood there stunned, slack-jawed and staring.

I got to my knees and started getting my feet under me when out of nowhere Max spear tackled me from behind. I face-planted in the dirt and felt my nose break from the impact. Max was on my back wailing away with his tiny, ineffective fists. I bucked him off, rolled over, and leaped up. He ran at me, but I grabbed his arms and pinned them to his sides.

“What did you do to him!?” Max screamed and spit in my face and tried to get free.

I wasn’t until I saw the look on his face that I felt any regret for what I did. Maybe I went too far. Maybe I should have just waited until my head cooled a little. Maybe I should have just hit him once or twice and been done with it. Fuck it, too late now. I shoved Max a little too hard and he skidded on his ass in the dirt. I started to mouth some kind of half-assed apology, but nothing came out. Max just sat there staring at me.

I turned and stumbled back to the pickup. I could barely see, between the broken nose and the look on Max’s face I couldn’t clear the tears from my eyes. I grabbed a rag out of the tool box in the truck and tried to wipe the blood off my face and hands. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Max get up and go over to the Rev, who was at least sitting up, a crowd had gathered around him and were giving him water. Nobody would even look in my direction.

Max and the Rev talked something over, then the Rev patted Max on the shoulder and hugged him. Max got up and walked into the crowd. That was the last time I ever saw him.