End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle (22 page)

             
“Grace, I must say, that was some amazing shooting. How did you learn to shoot so well?”

             
“Practice.”

             
“That’s natural talent too.”

             
“I know how to shoot,” Frannie said.

             
“I have to go,” Grace looked annoyed at having to spend even one minute being social.

             
“We’ll talk again, right?” Grace didn’t respond, she walked away without another word. I guess she was not impressed with Joel as the others.

             
“That’s a stubborn one,” he said when she was out of earshot.

             
“A stubborn what?”

             
“Woman,” he said and then smiled. “Why don’t we get back to talking trade? I think we can work together rather well, don’t you think?”

             
Frannie had been admiring Joel all afternoon looked mad. With her pretty looks, she was used to getting attention, but Joel ignored her and Rose all through the lunch but Rose didn’t seem to care. Frannie needed to give it up, Joel wasn’t interested. I saw the way he looked at Grace. 

              After Joel left, I head upstairs to my room, beat. Lunch tired me out and I wanted to rest. I had to be on weeds today from 4 to sundown
and I really wanted to skip it but wouldn’t. Unless you sick, you do your work. The others worked really hard, sometimes to a point where Hannah had to say they were overdoing it and I told them to stop.

             
Figured I could crash for an hour. Just lie down under a fan. Jim’s got a windup clock. Could use that to wake me.

             
I walked from the communications room to the stairs and found Felix sitting on one of the couches. He got up when I walked over.

             
He smiled. He did that a lot, probably to keep his spirits up.

             
“The man with Joel—Bill. He was one of the hunters who came by the lighthouse. They didn’t give us any trouble, but they didn’t help us. They were looking to recruit, sort of looked at Justin, and none of us looked our personal best, but they asked if we knew anyone who was a carrier. I heard your conversation about your former leader. I don’t know if these carriers exist— But Bill seemed intent on finding them.”

             
“There are none here.”

             
Felix smiled. I don’t know if he realized I was lying.

             
“Look we can talk about this later? Got a work shift later and I wanna relax.”

             
“Sure thing,” then headed towards the outside. I was glad he didn’t ask any more question about Rachel.

             
I climbed the stairs. The house wasn’t so hot but as I went up, my forehead and neck began to sweat.

             
When I got to my door, it was closed. It usually wasn’t so Idiot and Chinakitty could use the litter boxes. I tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. It felt like something heavy was keeping it shut.

“Who’s in there!” I yelled out. A moment later I heard things being moved, scrapes on the floor. I opened the door and found Keith sitting on my bed looking terrified. Chinakitty next to him. When the door opened she jumped down and ran out the room. Idiot was still on the bed, asleep. Guess the noise didn’t bug her.

“Keith,” I said, confused. “What the fuck?”

“Is he gone?” He said, his voice shaky. Not just his voice, his hands too.

“Who?”

“The hunter. He’s here because of me. They always seem to know where I am—“

I sucked in my breath. I thought about what Felix said. I moved to the bed and sat next to him.

“You mean Joel?”

Keith shook his head. “The one with him—the little guy. Tanya, I can’t kill another person--”

Chris was a short guy, shorter than Dave. After what Felix told me, I got worried.
Manny said Bill was the one who asked about carriers but Keith just said it had been Chris.

“Only Manny and Felicia know you’re a carrier. I know they won’t squeal. Felicia got no love for Joel. And my people won’t talk.”

I didn’t like what I was saying. I understood wanting to eliminate every fucking zombie but ain’t no reason to kill humans unless they get bit.

Even though Chris was with him, didn’t mean Joel hunted carriers.

“He don’t know you’re a carrier, right?”

“He’ll figure it out. He’ll remember me from the other house.”

“Here’s the problem, Keith. I think I might need Joel.” It was true. I needed his expertise, possibly his trade. I also needed him ‘cause he was my only link to Aisha.

He didn’t respond right away. He looked at me with large brown eyes, like I just said something nasty. “So you want me to go?”

“No, if you want to go I ain’t gonna stop you but I want you to stay. If you do I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you. You make yourself scarce when they come around. Go to the beach, a walk or something. Go talk to that crazy ass writer. If Chris recognizes you, just say you fled during the great pull. No reason to let him think you’re more than a regular refugee.”

He still didn’t say anything. His face looked betrayed. But in this world, we gonna have to occasionally make a deal with the devil.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Chapter 15

             
I was reading on the porch about windmills, enjoying the coolness of the shaded porch, when I heard
a bell ringing. It wasn’t our alarm but a bike bell, a distinctive ding-a-ling. I looked up to see Steven Jack on a Cannondale bike I knew was expensive since I’d ripped off bikes before. He carried a yellow messenger bag around his chest. He pulled right to the porch, put up the kickstand and headed towards me. No need to lock it up. Plenty of bikes around town we already helped ourselves to. The house got a massive garage and barn. We got ourselves a Prius, a van, a mini-van, and about 10 bikes. Enough to get everyone to the Renewal in case we got to leave. I hope we don’t.

As he got closer I saw that his yellow messenger bag had the fourth amendment written on it. I remember learning the amendments in school. When I got busted I loved bringing up the fourth amendment, but the cops just thought I was a smart aleck.

              “Hi Tanya,” he said. He wore blue jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of a dinosaur. I was in jean shorts and a tank.                                      

             
“Steven,” I said and put my book face down on a small table next to the four chairs we had on the shaded porch. I put out my hand and he shook it.

             
“Ever get a chance to read one of mine?”

             
“Nah,” I said, feeling embarrassed. “I only read non-fiction. Jim read everything you wrote. I’ll read some when I got time. In the winter, maybe.”

             
“I would like to meet him. Annemarie said I could come by anytime to charge up.”

             
“Why don’t you come on in?”

             
I took Steven inside. I haven’t seen him since we first met but some of the others on body patrol have. We cut down on body patrol for the summer for farm work and ‘cause it’s fucking hot, but Steven has been good about marking houses with solar panels. We added two more to our array. This was his first visit to the house unlike Joel who had already been here two times. Most of the time he spent checking out Grace with Frannie and Annemarie drooling over him. Annemarie didn’t seem to care that Joel had eyes for Grace but Frannie got annoyed. I thought she was acting like an idiot.

             
“Jim!” I yelled. I’m not sure where he was, I didn’t know the schedule by heart like he did. A moment later he raced down from upstairs. His eyes widened at seeing Steven.

             
“Hey, Jim, this is Steven Jack.”

             
Jim played calm but I knew he was freaked.

             
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir— I’m a big fan.”

             
“I’ve heard,” he said, shaking Jim’s hand. “And don’t call me sir. I think we’re done with formalities. Call me Steven. I’m here to charge up my laptop.”

             
“We can keep charging it up when you need to.”

             
“No need. I got eight hours of power. That should be enough to finish. I was almost to the end. When I finish I’ll need your power again to print. After that I think I’ll stick to the Royale.”

             
“No problem,” Jim said.

             
“Then you can be the first to read it.”

             
Jim looked like he was going to explode. I thought he might jump around screaming like a nutjob but he managed to control himself.

             
“Oh my god, thank you,” he said, shaking Steven’s hand vigorously.

             
“Afterwards can you pass it around.”

             
“But it will be the only copy,” Jim said. “Don’t you want it?”

             
“When everyone is finished, but what’s the point of a book without a reader. Even if I went from millions to 40. Or print out two copies if you want.”

             
“Join us for lunch.”

             
“I would love to.”             

             
‘Cause Steven wasn’t like Joel, we took lunch in the cantina with everybody else. Lunch ran from 12:30-2:30 every day and we got five cooks, three of them old ladies, Joyce, Emily and Carol who couldn’t work in the field but loved to cook. They each worked in the kitchen four days a week. Most everyone had KP duty once a week. Some volunteered to do more days. Mine was Monday night. I hated it.

             
Because it was after 1:30, we got the introverts. Grace and Felicia sat at two separate tables.

             
“Hi Joyce,” I said when I came in. We considered Joyce the head chef because she was a retired cafeteria lady. Her food was edible but boring. She got nothing on Maddie. “Anything left?”

             
Joyce, a white lady with long white hair tied up in a bun, raised a large spoon. “Plenty. if you like rice and beans, but there’s some salad too.”             

             
I didn’t, but planned to eat it anyway. Food was self-served. Next to the vat of rice and beans with a lovely bowl of salad greens we grew ourselves. “After we grab food,” I told Joyce but I meant it for Emily and Carol too. “Why don’t you join in?”

             
“Sure,” Joyce said. “Let me clean up first.”

             
“Dig in,” I told Steven who looked over the rice and beans with a weird face. “Rice and beans is pretty much our staple ‘cause we got a lot of it.” Steven didn’t reply but I was sure he hadn’t been eating steak and potatoes the last two years. I grabbed some grub, some salad and headed back to the table. I stopped by Felicia.

             
“Care to join us, Felicia?” Felicia looked at me, then Steven Jack. I knew she was hesitant, a loner out of guilt. I asked her to not be left out but she still bugged me.

             
I was She surprised when she grabbed her food and got up.

             
While I asked her, Jim got Grace to join us as well. She had the pouty look on her face because he interrupted her being anti-social.

             
“Looks like a party,” Steven joked when we got back to the table.

             
“We can make it one,” Jim bought up. “How about a book party?”

             
Steven laughed. “It’s nice to be here among fans.”

             
“I’ve never read any of your books,” Grace said, no emotion in her voice.

             
Steven looked a little awkward. “How about a get together with friends?”

             
Grace didn’t respond and I was glad she kept her mouth shut.

             
“So now for awkward small talk,” Steven said. He took a bite of salad which was just kale and lettuce.

             
“No sir,” Jim said. “I want spoilers for your new book. I want you to talk about the creative process. I want—“

             
“Take a breath and I told you, call me Steven. The creative process is a sham. When the call comes to write you do, when it doesn’t, write anyway. And you can read the new book as soon as it’s printed. I don’t want anyone to be in awe of me. I’m just another survivor like all of you.”

             
Jim didn’t respond but he smiled.

             
Carol and Emily sat at the table but didn’t say anything. Joyce looked like she was finishing up.              “We’re gonna clean out Harbor Height real soon,” I told him. “Been getting more zombs attacking, think they’re comin from there. I wanna do this soon.”

             
“I know it well, and I’m not a bad shot. I’ll come with and be your guide.”

             
“Appreciated, but warning you it’s dangerous.”

             
Steven started laughing. I joined in. I liked Steven, weirdo and all. I didn’t feel like I had to walk on tiptoes like Joel.

             
“You sure you don’t want to stay around the farm?” Jim asked. “We’re fixing up some houses across the road. They’ll have some electricity.”

             
“Thanks for the offer Jim,” he said, taking another bite of salad and chewing slowly before he spoke again. “But people bring trouble.”

             
“You mean the zombs? Mike thinks they’re dying out.”

             
“Believe or not I think zombies will become the least of your troubles.”

             
“Then what will be?”

             
“We got fewer zombies, now we have to worry about other humans.”

             
“We’re not bad people,” Jim said and he looked a little disappointed but I didn’t think Steven was talking about us.

             
Steven smiled, but didn’t laugh. “I don’t mean you fine folks. I’m talking about others. The world has changed. There’s no police, no law and order, no civilized society and that’s going to bring out the monsters. In this world, we basically have four types of people: Good people like your group, the people who live in the past who want the world to go back to normal, you got to be careful of them, they are more likely to commit suicide—“ he paused and took a drink of water.

             
“The third are the lawless. Instead of helping their fellow man in a crisis, they’ll take advantage of them. The fourth are those who follow them and make the mob more powerful.”

             
“What a minute,” I said. “We can’t, you know, stereotype people.”

             
“Not everyone will be exactly as I say, but you know it’s going to be leaders and followers. Good people versus bad. The thing about bad people is they aren’t willing leave good people in peace.”

             
“You can’t make people good or evil,” Jim said, his voice lower than usual. “A lot of people are in between.”

             
I looked at Grace but I thought about myself. Don’t know why the zombie apocalypse changed me when I wasn’t so good before. I could have easily taken advantage of the situation, but my daughter’s death changed everything.

             
“Look at Joel,” he said.

             
“Who’s Joel?”

             
“Joel’s a hunter we trade with,” I explained. “He’s the reason we got running water again.”

             
“Give a kiss on the lips for me. I was tired of peeing in a hole. Sounds like a good guy.”

             
“He isn’t.” This came from Felicia, still with no emotion in her voice. I was surprised she said something. “He’s an opportunistic jerk.” Felicia stopped talking, looking embarrassed that she said anything.

             
“Hence someone who is neither good or evil,” Jim said. “Joel has been good to us in trade but he stole people from Felicia’s group because he’s recruiting hunters.”

             
“People I still haven’t seen.”

             
Felicia was right. I’d been so hung up on finding Aisha, I hadn’t realized no one came from the camp, but Joel usually only bought Bill or Chris.              

             
“Do you trust him, Tanya?” Steven asked.

             
“No, I don’t but he hasn’t given any indication that he’s evil or plans to hurt us. I think he’s scouting for potential hunters.”

             
“And you still let him come?”

             
“I rather have a friend than an enemy. This ain’t a prison. Everyone is free to go.”

             
The conversation was interrupted by Joyce who plopped down next to me. She smelled of the rice and beans.

             
“You talking about Joel?” she asked.

             
“Yes.”

             
“He’s trouble. He took our soldiers and our best people. He left us almost no protection. And the people who took, they weren’t all hunter material, they were just young.”             

             
I didn’t like what she was saying but I had to keep in contact with him. I looked at Grace again. I wondered if she would leave if Joel asked her.

I pulled more pest infected plants and weeds than vegetables. I told Jim we should use pesticides but he said that unless we had some pesticide manufacturing plant to make us new and more vibrant pesticides, we had to stick with organic. Luckily this farm used to be an organic one. Lots of stuff in place to get the pests and weeds, but it’s ain’t enough. I’m tired of leaning over and yanking weeds and I hate fucking dandelions even if Joyce made tea out them. Our crops were coming in okay but not great. We did manage to grow about 12 heads of lettuce, smaller than the ones in the supermarket, ’cept it should have been about forty. We gave four to Joel ’cause of the water. We got the cold house set up to keep the vegetables fresh, but at this rate we’re eating all our crops instead of saving it.