DEAD: Confrontation (37 page)

He almost felt a degree of sadness at how she appeared to have completely dismissed him from her life as if he never exis
ted. It wasn’t until just as the sky was growing dark and they had moved a bit closer to observe that he heard something that made him feel better.

“Is she singing?” Aleah whispered.

“One of Shari’s songs,” Kevin answered with a nod.

He could not actually remember the words, but he knew that it was one of those sappy tween girl hits about undying love or some such thing. When she finished, she did that thing where she shut down—or at least appeared to do so.

When she snapped out of her trance or whatever it was, she ducked inside the house for a moment. When she came out, she was holding a jar that looked like it contained pickles. She sat on the porch steps and opened the jar. Setting the jar beside her, Valarie folded her hands under her chin and said grace. But it was what she said at the end that convinced Kevin that they could leave in the morning.

“And, Jesus,
please bless Kevin and make him safe at night when he sleeps so that he is not eaten by the ugly people. And make the pretty girl love him with all her heart so that he will make babies someday because he will be the bestest daddy that anybody could have in their whole life. Amen.”

The next morning, the trio headed west on the route that Kevin had laid out for them. As the day passed, Kevin became more and more certain that they were being followed. That se
nsation was partially a relief. If he had been correct and there was something skulking about back at Sage Farms, then it had apparently decided to follow them instead of linger around the farm.

Late in the afternoon, Kevin led them to a dilapidated house that sat on a hill looking down at the road from its perch. The yard had begun making its claim on the home itself as vines snaked up the sides. Kevin imagined the house would be impo
ssible to see within the next year or so judging by how much the brown vines already covered.

“You two set up camp and get the fire started,” Kevin whi
spered when they got inside.

“And what do you thi
nk you’re doing?” Aleah challenged.

“Somebody has been following us.”

“For how long?” Heather’s hand went to her side and the handle of the large blade that dangled from her belt.

“Maybe since we left the soldiers,” Kevin admitted. “At first I thought I might be imagining.”

“And you didn’t think it was something worth telling us?” Aleah waded into the discussion.

“I wasn’t sure,” Kevin said with a shrug. “And besides, if whoever it is had something in mind, I imagine that they would have done something by now.”

“So what exactly are you going to do?” Aleah asked.

She didn’t want to make an issue of it, but Kevin was
n’t exactly able to be too stealthy any more. She also had noticed that he would begin to limp as the day dragged on. Even with his walking stick, the all-day hikes were taking a toll.

“I’m going to slip out back while you two keep talking. I will find someplace where I can keep an eye on things for a bit.”

Heather shot Aleah a look as Kevin turned his back. The two nodded in agreement and Heather braced herself as she tried to find the best words.

“Maybe I should be the one to go.”

Kevin turned to Heather with almost no expression on his face. She could tell that he was struggling not to be angry, but she also saw the look of hurt flicker in his eyes.

“I am still capable of handling things,” he insisted. “After all, whoever or whatever it is has been on our case for over a week and neither of you have noticed.”

“Which does prove that you are still very capable,” Aleah spoke up. “However, there are going to be things that you can’t do…or at least can’t do as well.”

Kevin fought back the sense of betrayal that was trying to gain a foothold. He knew down deep that they were correct. He was going to have to rely on them for certain things and start a
ccepting that he did actually have limitations.

“Fine, but the moment you see
anything, you get inside,” Kevin conceded. “No funny stuff…no being a hero.”

“Yes, Father,” Heather said with a smirk.

Kevin and Aleah went about setting up camp for the night. They made sure to talk in conversational tones They didn’t have to wait long for the mystery to be revealed.

Heather walked in the front door…hands in the air. Kevin already had his crossbow in his hand as the figure dressed in camo fatigues came in behind her. It took Kevin a few seconds longer than Aleah to see everything clearly.

Aleah started laughing and he joined in. While he did not know particularly well the person standing behind Heather, he was confident that there was no imminent danger.

Heather stared with first confusion, and then annoyance. “Are you through?” she asked after the laughing subsided to the occasional chuckle.

“I think so,” Kevin managed. A snort escaped and he put his hands over his mouth and did his best to look serious.

“I a
m glad you find this so amusing.” Heather was growing angrier and more confused as each second passed and her friends continued to find her being taken prisoner so funny.

“Keep moving into the room,” the person behind her co
mmanded. Whoever it was, they certainly had a deep voice. “Don’t do anything foolish to make me use this.” She felt something prod her in the small of the back.

“Look, whoever you are—” Heather started, but felt som
ething prod her in the back again.

“
Keep movin’ before something bad happens,” the voice growled, and then the owner stepped out to the side.

“Yeah, I imagine that finger of yours is pretty dangerous,” Kevin chuckled.

Heather looked back to see the person behind her hold up one gloved hand. The fingers of the glove were metal. Or, more accurately, had metal strips sewn on.

“Catie!” Aleah exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“I know why you all left,” Catie said, pulling the mask that covered the lower half of her face down. “I have wanted to get out of that place for a while. I wanted to leave with Willa, but she wouldn’t let me.”

“Was there something going on there that I should know about?” Kevin asked.

“No,” Catie said with a shake of her head. “Nothing like sinister or evil. Just that it seems the longer we go, the stricter they try to be with the military stuff. They refuse to believe that there is no United States anymore…that our job is over.”

“Doesn’t sound like a reason to just up and leave,” Kevin said, a hint of doubt leaking into his voice.

“This wasn’t just a spur of the moment thing,” Catie admitted. “In fact, I have been wanting out for a while. I want to go and see my family…see if any of them made it.”

“Okay—” Kevin drew that word out to make it a question.

“My mom and her family are from Sioux Falls. I won’t be any trouble. Making the trip alone would probably be suicide. I can fight, help forage for supplies, be part of the watch rotation—” Catie began talking faster and faster until the words seemed to be all jumbled and running together.

“Look,” Kevin interrupted, “you don’t have to sell yourself. If you want to come with us, then you can. But why all the hi
ding in the shadows? Why not just come out and get our attention and then ask to come along.”

Catie blushed. “I was worried when you guys brought that girl with you.”

“Valarie?” Kevin asked.

“Yeah, she was so whacked out back at camp. But when you guys brought her to that little town and left her at the farm…”

“That is where we found her,” Kevin said.

“Well the thing is, when you did that, I wasn’t sure if you guys were…” Her voice trailed off and she blushed even brigh
ter red.

“Bad guys?’ Aleah laughed. Catie nodded.

“We brought her home because she was fine there before we took her away,” Kevin said. “And now that she is back there, maybe she will be okay again. Who knows? Actually, none of us are really ever going to be okay. However, I think we gave her the best chance she will have at anything resembling a normal life.”

“But how can you be sure that she won’t…freak out like she was before?” Catie asked.

“We can’t,” Kevin said with a sigh. “But what we have done is give her back the life she knew before we came along, and in that sense…maybe she is better off than we are at this point.”

“How so?” Catie let her pack slide off her shoulders and she stepped in closer to the warm fire with the others.

“Well…” Kevin gave it a lot of thought. In his mind, he knew why she was better off, but it simply was not something that he could put into words. “I just know that she feels safer. Considering all that we have seen…done…been forced to do these past months…” He couldn’t help but relive the last moments of people he’d come to know since the zombie rising.

He saw that
first girl he had cut down the night he and his friends decided to put the plan they never imagined implementing into play. He saw Cary as he knocked him out and left him in a defunct vehicle with a pistol and one bullet. He saw Mike in the corn field, Dr. Peter King outside the window of the pharmacy, and Willa. But worse than all of those, he saw Shari with tears in her eyes begging him to go, but to not leave her to the zombies.

“What would we give to have just one hour of one day where we felt safe…at peace?”

18

Winter’s End

Stepping out from between the two buildings, I looked around everywhere. Still no sign of Jake or Jon. I could not believe that they were doing what they said they were going to do.

A glan
ce at the sky told me that I had waited as long as I could. A slight glow could be seen to the east. Dawn would break shortly, and when it did, I needed to be far from here.

A low moan carried on the morning stillness
, sending shivers down my spine. Sure, I have seen…heck, I’ve killed hundreds of the undead. However, this place was almost like an oasis. It had a limited form of power from these huge wind turbines, as well as solar power. The folks here had hot water for crying out loud.

Only, there was something dark underneath. The place had as many jail cells and areas that were off limits as it did places that were open. In fact, I’d be willing to bet there were actually more places that you could not go than those that you could.

The woman that had said she was going to get me away from the others was a perfect example. When she woke up after that stuff Jon gave me to put in her water wore off, I had never seen such hatred in a person. I was really glad that she had that gag in her mouth because I could tell that all the stuff she was saying to me was unpleasant. Of course, when I waved that syringe she had hidden under her bed at her, her expression changed. And when I acted like I was going to inject her with it…well, let’s just say that her reaction made me at least able to stomach what Jon and Jake had done. I still didn’t like it, but I guess I won’t lose as much sleep.

Moving down the back side of the building, I stayed quiet, but I made sure to turn the knob on every single door that I passed. When I reached the last one, I had to stop and watch for the roaming sentry. I had to let him make three passes so that I had the timing down. Jon nailed it when he said that the rovers were too comfortable and would not expect anything, so it should be no problem slipping by them. The real problem would be when I got to the fence.

Staying in the shadows, I followed the fence all the way to the stream. I was almost there when the scream came. I knew that scream. Anybody still alive knows that scream. It was only seconds later when I heard another. The time to go was now. I sprinted for the stream.

I was three or four steps in when the freezing coldness caught up and made me stumble. It was like somebody was shooting me with ice needles from the knees on down. I stepped wrong on a rock or something and stumbled a bit. Had it not been for the sudden flurry of activity in the camp town, the guys up on the tower just about thirty feet away would have heard me for sure.

I pulled the snips out and cut the wire as quick as my cold hands would allow. As I pulled the mesh back, I thought I heard somebody yell for me to stop. I ducked through, which was not as easy as it sounds considering that I had to get down on my hands and knees. That put the water at my chin.

I cursed the mountain that the snow melted from to create this little rush of freezing water. I could not even
breathe because it was so damn cold.

As I came out the other side of the huge concrete pipe, cu
tting the grate on that end as well, I heard all hell breaking loose on the other side of the wall. Sticking my head out, I was only a little surprised that the guards on the closest tower were not in the least bit interested as to what was happening on the outside of the wall. All the activity was on the inside.

I only had to make it the length of a few football fields of open ground before I reached safety. I thought back on my days playing high school football. Why did I have to be a b
ig, bulky offensive lineman? Why couldn’t I be one of those speedy little wide receivers? Oh well, nothing to do about it now.

Just before I bolted, Jon’s words came back to me.
“When you make your run for it, don’t look back. Just go all out and be sure to zig and zag at random intervals to lessen the chance that somebody will be able to put a bullet in your back.”
While it wasn’t very comforting, it did manage to give me something to focus on.

Taking a deep breath, I counted to three in my head and made a break for the distant trees. In my mind, I heard a voice screaming for me to zig or zag. I broke left, still angling for the distant woods. Then, I broke right, but went left again after just a few strides.

As I ran harder, it took me a bit to realize that I was holding my breath. That explained the burning in my chest that was starting to cause me to panic. Much sooner than I would have believed, I was at the trees. I actually dove headfirst into the brush, rolled twice and ended up on my back.

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, but then the slow realization came: I made it! Even more exciting, I was a
lmost sure that they hadn’t even noticed me.

By now, that place was live with gunfire. I had no idea what Jon or Jake were doing in there, but it sounded like a war zone. I guess hearing all of that and being so focused on the place was why I didn’t hear the zombie until it was almost right on top of me. Thank goodness they can’t tiptoe. I yanked it by the arm and brought my blade up under its chin. That was easy enough, but when I turned back, I saw something far more frightening than just a few zombies.

A group of figures were huddled together beside the ruins of a house. From where they stood, I doubted that anybody on one of the watch towers could see them. They were taking a very serious interest in what was going on at the compound. I could only guess that this was one of the other factions that supposedly existed in the area.

Using my binoculars, I was able to count eleven people, but they were really good at using the shadows, so I couldn’t make out any clear details. However, there was a lot of pointing and animated conversation.

“You gonna stay here all day?” a voice whispered in my ear.

I probably would have screamed if Jake’s big hand wasn’t over my mouth. I stared at him with what I hoped came across as serious di
sapproval. He just smiled and took his hand away.

“Where is Jon?” I asked.

“Who knows, but we are supposed to get our butts moving, so let’s go.”

“Did you see those guys?” I hiked my thumb over my shoulder towards the group that was still gathered and watching from the shadows as people screamed and weapons could still be heard being fired from within the walled complex.

“Yep,” Jake said as he ducked into the brush. “And there are four other groups just like ‘em in different locations. I imagine they will be wanting to loot whatever they can from that place once things die down. Thing is…who is gonna be brave first.”

Jake made that all sound so simple. I followed him and we travelled for a while before he pulled up.

“You need to keep this to yourself,” he said to me in his serious voice. Before I could say anything, he continued. “What we did, we did for the group. We aren’t proud of it…but if we didn’t do something drastic, then our little group was going to be in for some serious trouble.”

“I understand.” And I g
uess I did to a point. I still didn’t like the idea of contaminating a water supply with tainted blood and turning a bunch of people into zombies, but I guess that is why they are real soldiers and I am just a kid.

“
Are you sure?” Jake asked. “Because I don’t really know about most of the others, but I am certain that Dr. Zahn would have a fit if she knew what we did. She wouldn’t care about all the reasons why…she just wouldn’t understand.”

I think that is where Jake was wrong. I think Dr. Zahn might be the only person that would understand. After all, she was mi
litary just like they were, and she is all about making sure that we survive. But this was my chance to prove that I could be one of them…I could be one of the soldiers and not just Billy Haynes, high school kid from Portland, Oregon.

“Sure would have been nice to hit their armory,” I sighed.

Our group was almost completely out of bullets. We had a stash of them for an emergency, but it would not be enough to last. I think it was more symbolic than anything else. In fact, I was starting to think that maybe we only had them for a last ditch situation where we would rather go out fast than be eaten…but I couldn’t be sure.

“Yeah,” J
ake said wistfully. “All this toe-to-toe fighting can get a bit dicey even at the best of times.”

I had no idea what would be considered the best of anything when it came to fighting. Once again, I guess that was j
ust my inexperience showing through.

We hiked through the day. I wanted to ask about Jon, but I just kept thinking that either Jake would say something or Jon would show up. By the time it grew dark, the latter was starting to look very unlikely.

Sitting by the fire, I tore open a package of stale peanuts. That was the extent of my big haul from the place. I looked at them and tried to remember a time when something like this was no big deal. It was becoming more and more difficult.

Jake
said he would take first watch, so I climbed up into my hammock that was suspended about ten or so feet above the ground and went to sleep.

When I woke up, it was not to
Jake poking me with a stick to tell me it was my watch…it was to the sun shining through the trees and into my eyes. I popped up and looked around. My first thought was that he had drifted off on his watch, but then I saw that his pack was gone.

Climbing down, the first thing I did was check the fire. It was still
glowing coals. I didn’t know exactly what that told me in relation to how long Jake had been gone, but I was pretty sure that it would have burned out within a few hours if left untended.

Looking at the sky, I could see that it was a while past su
nrise. So, my guess was that Jake left right around dawn. That was great…I still had no idea where he went…or why.

I dug through my own pack and pulled out some hardtack and nibbled on that with some dried meat of unknown origin. By the time I finished my meal, such as it was, I had polished off the last of my canteen.
The good thing was that there would be plenty of streams to grab a refill.

I started off back home. I could feel the temperature dro
pping as the day progressed and I got up farther into the mountains. Being all alone, I didn’t have to worry about keeping anybody’s pace.

Late that day, the snowline came into view. At first it was just patches here and there in the shade. After a while, I made the decision to move off road. It would be slower going, but I did not want to leave an obvious trail just in case things had not resolved themselves back down at the compound.

That got me to thinking about Gabe. I was having trouble with everything. And right in the center of it all was Gabe Winters. He had seemed so helpful when we first met him that day just over a week ago. He could have taken out Jon and Jake with the people he had with him. So…why join up and then want to overthrow everything? And if he was coming from Idaho, then what was his connection with that specific group in La Grande?

The more I pondered it, the less sense it all made. And what was the deal with wanting Melissa and her baby? Something was just not adding up for me.

I made camp for the night, and when it came time to climb into my hammock up in the trees, I guess I just expected Jake or Jon…or both, to come walking up like nothing happened. They didn’t.

And that is how each night went as I made my way back to the others. I did waste one
whole day two days after Jake vanished. I found a big tower and climbed to the top. From there I had a pretty good view of the surrounding area. I spotted a few zombies wandering around, even saw what I was pretty certain had to be some survivors as they made their way along a partially washed out logging road that wound through the woods. Each time they passed through a clearing in the trees, I saw them.

It was funny; they were obviously keeping their eyes peeled for zombies. If they knew that a living person was watching them, I wonder if they would have tried to make contact…or if they would have run away. As it was, they were heading back the way I’d come—towards La Grande.

I had to wonder if maybe the word was starting to get out that there were communities starting to form up. Also, from what little I had observed, it looked like they were not working together. Was this the start of rebuilding? And if it was, were we just going to go back to the old ways? Hating anybody who might be different?

I stayed up in that tower all day and into the night. When darkness came, I was surprised to see as many little dots of light as I did. There had to be at least fifty! And those were just the ones that I could see. That meant there were people out there. More living than perhaps we might have realized.

That got me to thinking. Why couldn’t we all come together? Why couldn’t we all fight to secure someplace? Why did we have to immediately take sides…draw lines…pick and choose who we would include or exclude?

When morning came, it was bright and sunny. Looking around, I tried to pinpoint some of the places where I had seen light from fires. It was all just green pines frosted with the ve
stiges of the snow that fought to hold on to the world just a while longer. However, I was seeing more bare patches. Winter might still have a bit of life left in it, but spring was coming.