American Revenant (Book 3): The Monster In Man (20 page)

Gary and his remaining men started to protest when Gordy raised a hand
to cut them off.  “Take that fucking body with you and get the hell out of
here.  Oh, and Gary, if we ever see you anywhere near here again there will be
no talking, understand?  Tam, let him go.”

Tam looked at Gordy and back to Gary.  She shoved his head once more,
hard, with the pistol and walked away to join those standing by the gate.

As the men walked away Gordy pulled Mike and Rick to the side.  They
spoke quietly for several minutes before Gordy joined his people at the gate. 

“Where are they going?” Calvin asked.

“They’re just going to follow them for a while, make sure they don’t
double back and try something stupid.” 

“Should have shot them all,” said the young woman without a child. 

“You won’t have to worry about them anymore,” Gordy said.  He watched as
Mike and Rick faded into the trees and nodded.  “They won’t be bothering you
ever again.”

Chapter
34

“No kidding?  Tam went all badass on the dude?”

“Yeah, you should’ve seen her.  I really thought she was going to put a
bullet in his head.  Would have saved me and Rick all that damn walking, that’s
for sure.  My back is killing me.”  Mike stood, arching his back, stretching
the aching muscles.

“I’m glad she didn’t, though,” Jimmy said, a sad look passing across his
features.  “It’s hard to come back from that.”

Mike studied his friend for a moment before speaking.  “Have you?  Come
back from it I mean.” 

“You don’t have to worry about me brother, I’m good.  I won’t be losing
my shit again, at least not like that.”

Mike nodded.  “Well, that’s good to hear.”

“So how far did you have to follow those guys?”

“They went about three miles up the road, to Antioch Lane.”

“Ah, ok, I know the road.”

“Yeah, well, they sat down in the road and started drinking from a
bottle one guy had in his pack.  Didn’t take them long to suck down enough
liquid courage to start heading back to Saverton, talking about killing
everyone.”

“And that’s when you guys handled things?”

“And that’s when we handled things,” Mike stated.

Jimmy nodded, understanding that his friends waited until they knew the
small group of men had become a threat to the community.  Taking a life was
never easy, but it was easier to live with when you knew that person meant harm
to those you cared about.  “Anything going on around camp right now?”

“Yeah, Gordy’s called a meeting of everyone for this evening.  Not sure
what it’s about, though.  You feel up to walking down there?”

“Oh hell yes.  I need to get out of this cabin for a while.”

“I’ll come by, walk down with you.”

“Sounds good, thanks Mike.”

Several hours later Mike and Jimmy, joined by Jimmy’s daughters, made
their way to the ball field where a large fire was already burning.

Jimmy patiently and gladly accepted the pats on the back and good wishes
for his health.  Nothing could compare to the feeling of family and their care
and concern. 

Anna and Louis went through the crowd with cups, a kettle of hot water
and packets of instant hot cocoa mix.  Many in the large gathering took a cup,
holding tightly to the warmth in the chill evening air, some sipped at whiskey
or rum. 

Gordy waited a while, letting everyone enjoy the time together before he
stood up and cleared his throat loudly to get attention.  He spoke at length on
everything they had recently gone through, and the changes it had brought upon
the community as a whole. 

“We live in an inexplicable world now, where the dead walk and the
living scratch out an existence.  We have suffered loss, and each of us knows
the pain of it well.  But we continue to push forward, to fight on and rebuild
something out of the world we’ve left behind.

“We have added many new people to our ranks, and I see us continuing to
do so.  In light of recent events I don’t think we should put ourselves too far
out into the world, not yet.  When we have enough people that we can do that
safely then we can reexamine that, but for now I want to ask what you as a
group think of putting some signs out there.

“Nothing extravagant, just a simple sign with the name of the settlement
and the distance to us.”

“Do you really think we can protect and defend this place if we have
to?”

“I do, Everett.  The wall is done, and Alex thinks that with a little
help he can put together some dual-rifle swivel mounts to place along the wall
in strategic locations.”

“What name are we going to use, Saverton or Camp Oko Tipi?”

“Actually Lynn, that brings up something else I wanted to get everyone’s
input on.  What would you think about giving the Oko Tipi/Saverton settlement a
new name?”

“Damn good idea,” Rick said from the back of the crowd where he stood
beside Trish, with Tyler on his shoulders.

Gordy smiled, “Glad you think so, now what do we call it?”

People began to shout random and competing thoughts, building to a loud din
until Gordy held his hands up, shouting, “Ok, Ok!”  Gordy looked around the
quieted group for a moment.  “We have our American heritage to think about, as
well as our Missouri heritage.  The name should take that into account.  We
haven’t given up on ourselves, or the importance of our heritage, which also
speaks to the future we are working to secure.”

“Hey, Gordy,” Jimmy said from an old folding chair brought out from the
main hall.  “I think you just said the name, several times.”

“Uh, not sure what you mean, Jimbo.”

“Heritage, Gordy!” Mike said, holding up a bottle of whiskey.

Gordy began to speak, then closed his mouth, thinking. 

“Sounds perfect to me, Gordon.” Jan said.

“Is everyone happy with renaming our settlement here and calling it
Heritage?”  He heard no dissent, and said to the crowd, “Then that settles it,
from now on this place will be called Heritage, Missouri!”

The group celebrated well into the evening, until the night became cold
enough to chase most inside to the warmth of small fires and family.

****

“Hey, I’m going to go out and put up a few of these signs, you want to
ride along?”

“Yeah, sure, one sec.”  Jimmy slipped on his boots while Mike waited
just inside the door. 

“Jimmy, I’ll be helping Evie for a while this morning, and then I’m
going to spend some time with the new people.”

“Ok, Tam, I’ll be fine.  You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Oh, I’m not worried, because you won’t be doing anything other than
riding along, right?”  Tam looked at Mike as she spoke, sending a clear
message.  He nodded, assuring her that he understood.

Jimmy gave Tam a kiss as he headed out the door, following Mike down to
the waiting pickup truck.  In the bed of the truck lay three handmade signs
each reading
Heritage, Missouri
followed by a distance in miles. 

“So where are we taking these?” Jimmy asked.

“The first sign, the one that says “Follow N” we’re going to put up at
the junction of V and T outside New London.  Another one is going near Monkey
Run.”

“Why out there?  All those gut-suckers walking around Sawyer’s Creek and
the cave campground will stop people coming from that direction.”

“Gordy thinks we’ll eventually clear all the dead walking around the
campground and Sawyer’s Creek so he wants a sign out that way.”

Jimmy shrugged, “Ok, then.  Better than going out looking for people.”

“You got that right.  I don’t know about you, Jimbo, but I’m ready to
hole up for a while.  We can spend some time building up what we have here,
make ourselves stronger, better able to handle whatever comes our way.”  Mike
drove slowly down Highway N, in no hurry to complete the task he and Jimmy were
on.

“I’m with you on that.  I’ve had enough of
out there
,” Jimmy
said, nodding at the passenger window.

“I bet you have.  Man, it’s a wonder you survived all that shit, and
somehow didn’t get bit.”

“Tell me about it,” Jimmy said, gazing out the window.

“How’re Tam and the girls doing?”

“They’re ok I guess.  The kids don’t want to leave me alone for five
minutes.  I think they would hang on me constantly if Tam wasn’t always telling
them to be careful, they might hurt me.”

“To be expected I guess,” Mike said as he pulled to the side of the
road. 

Both men got out of the truck, Jimmy leaning against the warm front of
the vehicle, watching as Mike took a heavy hammer and one of the signs out of
the bed and pounded it into the ground.

The drive to Monkey Run took nearly twenty minutes, both men enjoying
the time to talk and the bright clear day. 

Getting back into the truck after driving the second sign into the
ground Mike asked, “Hey, you want to drive up and see how many of those things
are still walking around up there?”

Jimmy nodded.  “Yeah, sure.  Don’t get too damn close, though.  I’m not
in fighting shape at the moment.”

Mike chuckled, “No problem there, besides, I have my trusty hammer.” 
Mike patted the medieval style war-hammer lying in the seat beside him. 

Mike stopped the truck in the middle of the road about a football
field’s distance from horde of zombies still crowding the blacktop, blocking
the way into Hannibal.  Several turned in the direction of the truck, hearing
the rumbling engine in the distance.

Mike quickly turned the truck around, saying, “Well, they’re still
hanging around and pretty damned attentive.”

“One more sign, where we taking this one?”

“Sign says ten miles, close to Ashburn I think.”

The men talked as Mike drove, the idle chatter of old friends,
interspersed with the banter they affectionately shared. 

Jimmy, who had slid down in the worn seat, suddenly sat up and pointed
out the window.  “Mike, what the hell is that?”

Mike glanced at the odometer, noting they had traveled almost seven
miles before following Jimmy’s finger.  He slowed the truck, straddling the
faded yellow line.

Thirty yards from the truck a deer was caught in a barbed wire fence. 
They could hear the creature bleating in pain as two zombies tore into the
panicked beast.

“Damn man, I feel bad for the deer,” Mike said.

“Yeah, me too.  Guess we should do something,” Jimmy said, shifting in
his seat.

“You’re not doing anything, I’ll handle it.”

“Mike, I didn’t realize you were that afraid of my wife,” Jimmy said
with a smile.

Mike smiled back.  “Oh hell, man, you have no idea.  Walk up with me if
you want, but I’ll take care of the gut-suckers.”

“Fine with me.”

One of the dead things was on the opposite side of the deer and
partially hidden from view by the other.  The zombie with its back to them wore
what had once been a bright pink t-shirt, now covered in dark gore that
appeared to have soaked the garment from the large flap of skin hanging from
the back of its exposed skull.  This rotting curtain of scalp wobbled obscenely
every time the creature pressed in to take a bite of the still squealing deer.

The left arm of the dead thing hung at its side, most of the skin peeled
away, several fingers on the hand nothing but naked bone.

The stench was nearly overpowering, even at fifteen feet away.  Jimmy
leaned toward Mike, whispering “Fuck, these things smell worse every time we
see them.”  Mike simply nodded in reply.

Whether the zombie had heard Jimmy’s sotto voce comment or their scent
was carried to the undead thing on the chill breeze they couldn’t know, but the
zombie in the pink shirt snapped its head around, the long flap of scalp flying
out behind it like a horrific flag.

“Whoa, shit,” Mike said, stopping mid-stride.  He put his arm out to
prevent Jimmy from advancing on the creature as it moved away from the deer
toward them. 

The zombie, a woman, shuffled down the shallow ditch, heading toward
them with arms out, bright red blood and bits of deer flesh dropping from its
open, moaning mouth.  Still legible on the front of the pink shirt now spotted
and striped with dried gore and fresh blood was one word in bold black
letters. 
AWARE
.

Mike felt a sudden intense surge of animosity, angry at this one zombie,
at all zombies, for even existing.  “Be aware of this, bitch,” he spat
vehemently as he stepped forward, hefting the war-hammer.  The zombified woman
shuffled within range of Mike’s swing and he brought the hammer down on her
hairline, a solid hollow
crack
resounding from the skull.  Both skin and
skull split, fetid brain tissue welling up in the crack.  Mike draw back and
swung again, slamming the crenellated steel head into the same spot, widening
the hole, the hammer squelching into soft tissue beneath bone.

Mike tore the hammer from the hole as the zombie fell, drawing back for
another swing just as Jimmy said, “The other one’s aware now, Mikey.”

Mike flicked a glance toward the next gut-sucker just as it stepped away
from the deer hung in the fence.  Instead of waiting he hopped the shallow
ditch, walked purposefully up to the undead thing and swung the hammer
sideways, impacting the temple solidly, burying the steel head in one violent
swing.

Ripping a large chunk of skull out with the hammer’s head, Mike bent to
wipe the blade on the trampled grass.  The deer still twitched in the fence,
soft mewling noises coming with its fast breathing.  Mike spun the hammer in
his hand as he walked up to the poor beast.  “Sorry you had to go out like
that, fella,” he muttered.  He swung the hammer, the sharp spike cutting
through soft fur, punching through bone into the small brain, instantly
stilling the animal.