DEAD: Blood & Betrayal: Book 11 of the DEAD Series (9 page)

“I wasn’t on those other two missions,” Catie countered.

“And you make that much of a difference?”

“Yes.” Catie glanced over at Kalisha who sat quietly, holding her cup and staring down into it with almost no expression on her face. “I got her released to us, didn’t I?”

There was a long silence. Catie was still organizing her thoughts, and she had something up her sleeve that she was not ready to reveal yet. She knew that it was a risky plan at best. It could very well lead to her death as well as some or all of the team. However, over the years, she had dealt with plenty of groups like these Beastie Boys. She also saw something in their actions that led her to believe that she might be able to do something that would assure her safety as well as her unborn child’s.

After leaving the little chapel and being escorted back to the dorm, Catie considered her possibilities. She knew very well that she was rolling the dice being out and alone in the world. She had a strong desire to return home and let everybody know that Kevin had been killed. Yet, once she really thought about it, she came to the conclusion that there was simply no need to hurry. She and Kevin had left with the idea of not returning. It was not something they talked about much, but the further away they got, the more it felt like they were closing the book on that chapter of their lives. This was her chance to start fresh.

“I know that you have no reason to trust me, but seriously, do you like the way things are here?” Catie set her cup down and eyed the pot with a tiny wisp of steam curling up from the spout. Denise saw her expression of longing and poured her another cup.

“Not exactly,” Denise admitted. “But I know how things are outside of our walls. I have heard the stories of the immune being hunted like animals, treated worse than zombies. And, lest we forget, the undead do still hold their own and are still a good reason to not be outside of the protection that the walls of this town provide.”

“So you want to spend whatever is left of your life hiding behind a wall and being treated like a second class citizen at best?” Catie glanced at the wrist guard that Denise was wearing. It identified her as immune to the zombie virus. It may as well be a scarlet “I” considering the fact that it basically identified her as something of which to be afraid, or at least leery. “You happy wearing that thing and having people give you a clear berth when you pass?”

“It is for the protection of others,” Denise insisted. Catie could hear the tremor in her voice. The woman was not an idiot; she knew damn good and well that she was marked as an outcast, a pariah.

“If you help me, you will be helping yourself. Wouldn’t you like to live a somewhat normal life?” Catie pressed.

“Normal? How can anybody ever conceive the possibility of living a normal life again?”

“We might not be tweeting and Facebooking our lives away, but I can assure you that it is very possible to live a normal life. It is up here.” Catie tapped her head with her index finger. “It is a state of mind. You are telling yourself that you are doing this to protect others. Yet you live with people who lord over you. Sure, this is a so-called mixed community. But you are nothing more than servants and grunts that get to do the dirty work. Keep it up and that system will become so entrenched that you guys will be developing your very own caste system. You will all know your place, and the rest of the community will become more and more gluttonous for power and control.” Catie felt her anger build and allowed her passion to spill into her voice.

“You want us to take this place from the unknowns?” Kalisha whispered. “You are talking like we can just stomp our feet and change things. That is what Elliot thought. Now he lives out there like a wild animal.”

“Elliot?” Catie heard something in the girl’s voice that made her perk up. “Who is Elliot?”

“A man that used to live here. Helped Dean and some of the others get the walls up. He was bit way back when this all began,” Denise explained. She glanced at Catie and then over at Kalisha who nodded for her to continue. “He did a lot of the foraging back in the early days since a bite or scratch wouldn’t be his death.”

“And why did he get the boot?” Catie asked. She noticed Kalisha’s expression grow dark; obviously this was a sensitive subject for the girl.

“As the months passed, and then years, the community grew,” Denise continued. “Of course there were some that arrived with the scars of attack. We welcomed them like anybody else. Dean and Elliot sort of ran things. They even held an election in case somebody felt like there might be a better person or people to be in charge. Elliot actually received about forty or so more votes than Dean.

“Then this small group arrived. Every single one of them was immune! It was the first time that such a group came to our gates. Dean was pretty excited. It was also when the first of the children born to a pair of immune parents arrived in our community.” Denise glanced at Kalisha.

“You were the first one?” Catie asked.

The girl shook her head. “My little brother Caleb…” She began to choke up and waved for Denise to continue.

“Things were good for a while. We had to fight off a few other groups, but most people arriving at our walls were in terrible shape and thankful for a place to call home. Our number continued to swell and we actually had to design a new wall. The immune community stepped forward and basically did the entire construction project. They lost three people building that wall.

“About three weeks after the wall was built, people started getting sick and turning. It was just men, and none of them were on any of the details that went out to forage, so people began to get scared. They were afraid that it might be something in the air.” Denise paused and her eyes seemed to find something interesting to look at in her lap.

“Let me guess,” Catie finally said. “Some girl was going around and having sex with men, exposing them to whatever it is that makes people become a zombie.”

“Her name was Sandy Bennet, and her husband was one of the men working on the wall,” Denise said with a sigh. “She was upset. At the trial, she accused the community of taking advantage of her husband and the other immunes. She said that they were being treated unfairly and that nobody had even made a point to hold some sort of memorial service for the men who had died to build the walls. She also claimed that five men she had sex with did not turn, and that if they did not step forward by the next day of the trial, she would give their names.”

“So?” Catie said with a shrug. “Who cares? Wouldn’t that just bolster the numbers of the immune? I would think that was a good thing. Hell, if I was gonna be infected, I would take a roll in the hay over a hunk of my flesh being ripped from my body any day of the week.”

“And that would probably have been the case,” Denise agreed, “but after the deaths, it was mandated that any who were immune needed to have some sort of permanent identification. At one point, tattoos were even suggested, but we had children who were immune. Nobody would consent to a child being forced to get a tattoo. That is when the bracers were mentioned. It was also when we were all rounded up. It was temporary according to Dean.”

“Tell her what happened to Sandy,” Kalisha urged.

Denise paled just a bit, and it was clear that she was recalling something horrible. At last, she sat up straight and fixed Catie with a somber expression.

“She was supposedly being kept in isolation. It was for her own protection according to Dean. Only, the next morning, she was found in a hallway. Her guard was torn apart and at her side. At some point that night, she had died of some unknown cause and then managed to get out of her cell. The hallway was locked from the outside and the poor guy tasked to supposedly keep an eye on her was attacked and turned as well. Of course that confirmed reports that an immune person would still turn upon their death. Still, nobody could explain how she died, much less how she was let out of her cell.”

“So the secret of who else she slept with that did not turn was never revealed,” Catie finished the predictable ending to the story.

“That was only the start of it. As soon as the council re-convened, it was mandated that all the immune be removed from any supervisory position. They were deemed a risk. Elliot and Dean got into an actual fight in the council chamber, but it was like Dean had been ready for him. A bunch of men jumped in and took Elliot down, tied him up, and then carted him off. A few months passed, and a dozen or so others in the community that were immune just disappeared. That was when the Beastie Boys started making their presence known. That is also when children started coming up missing.”

Catie listened to the recounting of the story with mixed feelings. She knew as well as the woman speaking how those things managed to
just
happen. That also helped steel her resolve for the plan that she had brewing in her head.

Of course, a lot of things would need to happen for it to work. There was a better chance that it would fail than succeed. Still, she needed to do this; if not for herself, then for the baby. She wanted Kevin’s child to have an honest chance at a good life. That did not include living as a second class citizen.

Catie wanted desperately to honor Kevin’s legacy and make him proud of her. She did not necessarily believe that he was “looking down on her” or anything. It was just something that she felt very strongly about.

Catie was a realist. She had been one before Kevin, and she was certainly even more so now. Her entire being was focused on something long term. Yes, there would be risk involved. That was normal in the world she lived in now. She was more certain than ever that she could not do this on her own. She would not be out in the middle of God-knows-where when this baby came. And she would not be living in some walled community where her status of being immune was a liability.

“So then your dad is one of these Beastie Boys?” Catie turned to Kalisha who nodded. “And he took your brother. So why not you? And why are you afraid of them?”

“We aren’t sure that my dad is still the one in charge. There was rumor that he died. And they take women, but not girls. Supposedly they are using the women like baby mills. One person said that the women are being kept in cells and made to do nothing except give birth, nurse, and care for the babies,” Kalisha said softly. “I can’t believe that my dad would do that. He loved my mom. He treated her good. When she died on a run, he was heartbroken.”

“There are other stories, most of them awful. These Beastie Boys are a scary bunch,” Denise said, reaching across and taking Kalisha’s hand, giving it a pat.

“I still don’t believe any of it,” the girl spat, tears of anger starting to well in her eyes.

Catie considered all that she heard. It was certainly cause for concern. However, that did not change things. She had to at least try.

“You can either be a part of the solution, or you can sit back and let things happen around you,” Catie said to Denise with a tone that was perhaps a bit harsher than she intended. “I can’t promise you that things will work. But I can guaran-damn-tee that sitting back and letting others decide your fate will not be the least bit satisfying.”

“I’m going,” Kalisha said. “Whatever you have in mind, I bet it will be better than this. And I want to see for myself if my dad is doing these things. If he is…” Her voice trailed off and the tears that had threatened finally spilled down her cheeks.

“So, what is your plan?” Denise asked.

“Not now. I will fill you in once we are out of here.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“It’s not that,” Catie said, although that was not entirely true. The reality was that she wanted to trust this woman, but trust was something earned, not given. “I need to work it out in my head. If I tell you now, it is likely things will change by the time we leave. I have a few more things I need to know before I can be certain of what I am going to do.”

“You aren’t inspiring a lot of confidence right now,” Denise quipped.

“Just hang tight,” Catie said, getting up and excusing herself.

She walked back to her dorm. Both Denise and Kalisha offered to walk with her, but she refused, saying that she needed some time to think. As she did, she paid close attention to those that she saw wearing the bracers. She needed to lay some groundwork for her full plan to have a chance. That meant talking to a few more citizens. The hard part was deciding which ones. One mistake would end things in a hurry. If her plan was discovered, it was likely that she would end up dead…or worse.

***

“Get your hand offa me!” the man snapped, shoving the two burly guards away and snatching up a small mallet that looked like it could do some wicked damage.

Catie stepped out of the dorm. She had heard what sounded like a scuffle outside and had gone to see partially due to curiosity, but mostly out of boredom. It had been three days since her little deal with Dean Stockton. He claimed the title of the administrator, but Catie saw him more as a dictator. There was a council, but it was handpicked and seemed to consist of nothing more than a few yes men.

Twice she had gone to see him and both times she was turned away. She was beginning to wonder if the man had not been able to round up enough of his men to make the trip. After all, the Beastie Boys were rumored to be a nasty bunch. Over the past few days, Catie had made it a point to go into public places and drop casual inquiries about them to the residents of this community. It was as if she had mentioned honest to goodness boogeymen.