Generation Dead - 07 (7 page)

Chapter 12

We moved down the hill and back towards the river front area.  People were moving about, going about their business and lives, and there was a general energy to the place.  There was something, else, though, something that didn’t have a specific name to it.  I felt it when we stood down by the candle shop and hardware store. 

People walking around didn’t look up too much, and when they did, it was just a quick glance, here and there.  They walked a little too quickly, held their purchases a little too tightly, and didn’t seem to trust themselves to speak too loudly. 

I noticed several of the older inhabitants would scowl from time to time, and they were more apt to speak up, but in general, something was off.  I wondered if Julia noticed as well, but she was busy picking up a small ball that had bounced near her feet.  A child, likely no more than five, came shyly over and stood about six feet away.  He looked at her with big brown eyes, and slowly held out a hand for the ball Julia was holding.

“
Peez
?”
  He said, keeping his hand outstretched with the other tucked under his chin.  I looked up and saw another small child peeking cautiously over a small fence that closed off a tiny yard.  The back gate was open, and explained how the youngster managed to get out after his ball.

A voice called out from the house before
Julia could hand him the ball.

“Jimmy?  Jimmy!  Where are you?  Jimmy!”

A young mother, probably no older than Julia,
came
racing out of the house and scooped up the other
child.
She
raced through the gate and spotted her other offspring.  Running over, she put a protective hand on Jimmy’s head and knelt down by him.

“Don’t ever leave the yard! You know that!” The woman clutched both children close and I wondered what was causing this fear.

“
But,
Mommy, the ball…” Jimmy held out his hand again and Julia stepped over and gave him the ball.

“Sorry, miss, he was just trying to get his ball
back,
” Julia said kindly.

The woman noticed Julia for the first time and gave her a once over.  Julia’s beauty sometimes put women off, but this woman was pretty enough herself not to be bothered.

“Thank you. He’s all I have, and with the kidnappings lately, it’s been a constant
nightmare,
” She said, holding Jimmy, who ignored the proceedings and wandered back to the yard.  The woman watched them both go back and turned to Julia.  “Thanks again.”  She turned back to her little house when a harsh voice launched itself across the intersection.

“Hey!  Where you going?  Where you live, pretty thing?”  A man about thirty came walking down the street, and many people got out of his way.  He was about my height, but he was massive, with fat arms and a large gut.  His face was covered with a coarse beard, almost looking like fur, and his
deep-set
eyes were mean and dark.  Big hands swung without regard to hitting anyone, and people seemed to scramble to get out of the way.

The woman stopped where she was and waited her head down and arms to her sides.  Instantly, I was in kill mode, and I didn’t even understand why. 

“Hey!  Turn around when Carson Casey talks to you!”  The man walked closer, and Julia turned to face him.  That seemed to set him off even more. 
“
Lookie
here!
  We can have a threesome!  Ha!’  The man barked at his own joke and stepped closer.  Behind
him,
I could see another man watching the scene with interest.  He was tall, but thin, and his eyes had a calculating look about them.  I committed his face to memory, because I figured I would see it again.

I was about to intervene when Jake suddenly appeared.  He had a knife in his hand and a very calm look on his face.  He stepped between the women and Carson, and the fat man nearly fell over trying to stop in time.

“That’s far enough.”  Jake’s voice was quiet, and from
experience,
I knew he was not in the mood for talking.

I stepped out and positioned myself about fifteen feet back and to the left of Carson.  I didn’t want to watch the
proceedings.
I was more interested in making sure no one came to Carson’s aid. But I could see Jake from where I was. Three men detached themselves from the front of the wine shop, but stopped when I casually took out my tomahawk and tested the edge with my thumb.

“Who the
fuck are
you?” Casey roared at Jake.  He kept his eyes on the knife Jake was holding, but he clearly didn’t think Jake was any sort of threat.

“Friends call me Jake.  You can call me sir, if it suits
you,
” Jake
said, holding his knife up and inspecting the blade.

“Fuck that, you little prick.  Put that knife away before I shove it up your ass and make you smile while I do it.”  Casey started to move towards
Jake,
but Jake just put the blade out in front of himself, stopping Carson’s forward progress.

“Have I told you what I do for a living?” Jake asked, locking eyes with Casey.

“Fuck do I care? Step the fuck aside!” 
Clearly,
Carson was limited in his vocabulary choices.

“I’m a
C
ollector,
Casey,
” Jake said, staring intently at his blade.

Casey’s manner changed abruptly.  When he first thought he was up against some fool who wanted to defend some poor girls honor due to some misguided feelings of chivalry, he figured to just brush the fool aside and be done with it.  When that fool turned out to be someone who confronted zombie hordes on a regular basis and lived to tell the tale,
then that was
something else entirely.

Casey still tried to bull his
way through.  “I’m done talking. M
ove or I’ll break your fucking…”

Whatever Carson meant to say was lost as Jake struck suddenly, stepping up close to Casey and pressing the blade of his knife against the larger man’s throat.  Jake then moved his face close to Casey and said something that scared the man to his roots.

“I’ve killed zombies with this blade two days ago, Carson, and I don’t remember if I cleaned it properly.”  Jake smiled slightly, almost apologetically.

Carson Casey suddenly broke out in a sweat. Everyone over the age of fifteen knew the threat of zombies, and everyone else knew what to do to keep from getting infected and turning themselves.  Jake’s dirty blade was a death sentence and Casey
knew it.  One cut and it was over.  Nothing could save the big man from becoming a zombie except a crack in the skull.

“D-Don’t do anything stupid, son, I was j-just
funnin
’ with the
ladies,
”  Casey
said shakily.

“I’m sure you were.  But they might have not liked your manner, so I’m sure you will apologize, correct?”  Jake tended to get precise when he was in a bad mood, but Casey would never know how close to death he really was.

Carson’s eyes narrowed but he managed to creak out a sincere-sounding apology.  I might have felt sorry for the man if he hadn’t been such a prick earlier.

“
Excellent,
” Jake said.  “Now we can all be friends again.” He pulled the knife away from the big man’s throat and Carson fairly fell back in an attempt to get away from the poisoned blade.  I looked at my tomahawk and then looked back at the men lounging nearby and they suddenly realized they had other places to be.

Carson stalked away and Jake came over to where I was standing.

“Think this might be trouble later?” he asked.

I knew what he was saying, and I didn’t feel like getting into
trouble,
so I lied.

“Should be alright.
  If we were staying it would be, but I don’t think so.”  I knew Jake would finish the man off if he felt he had a reason, and I didn’t want to stay any longer.

“Hope so.”  Jake turned to the young woman who had never left Julia’s side.  As he approached, I saw Julia sheath a knife at the small of her back.  Carson Casey would have died one way or the other today.

“Sorry for the trouble, ma’am.”
Jake said to the young mother.  “Hope that fool doesn’t bother you
anymore
.”

The woman blushed. “He’s been a pain, but I can’t fight him with my babies nearby.” 

“If you need help, just have someone get in touch with us.  We’ll take care of
things,
”  Jake
promised.

“Thank you.” She turned to Julia.  “Thank you.”  After
that,
she went back to her little yard where her children were quietly playing with the ball again.

We stood together in the
street.
I noticed a lot of people smiled at us, and several nodded in approval.  I had the feeling Casey was not well liked, and I wondered if it might have been a kindness to the town to have run him out.  The man lounging had disappeared, but I still had the feeling I was going to see him again.

Jake tilted his head towards the docks, and when we had cleared the last of the
shops,
he showed us the three gold coins and two silver coins he had managed to get out of the
Melter
for his jewelry.  Julia laughed and brought out the payment from Charlie, and we all looked at the new wealth we had managed to accumulate within a very short amount of time.

“
Dang,
” Jake said, looking over the money.  “Anything we need before we shove off and head for home? 
Anything?
 
House, car, boat?”
 

We all laughed, but the reality was we had enough money for a car or a boat.  After the world came to an end, the new Congress decided to use precious metals for currency.  They established the rate of exchange and made sure everyone followed by example.  The money was copper, silver, and gold.  All paper money was
completely worthless.  Our dads had insisted, saying this was one lesson from the past we were going to learn.  Twenty copper coins equaled a silver coin, and twenty silvers equaled a gold
coin
.  Once it was announced that we were going back to a gold standard, there was a rush to procure old jewelry, watches, and rings.  After the initial rush died down, people let the marketplace dictate prices, and they were off.

It worked out well, since there was no arguing that there was plenty to go around.  Jewelry stores that had survived the zombies were suddenly very popular and most within the vicinity of any town were looted, and quickly.

We pocketed our wealth and made our way back to our boat.  We expected the trip to be very uneventful, but it wasn’t going to start out that way.  Standing by our docked canoe was a large man flanked by two others.  All three were armed with firearms, something unusual in the settled areas.  There wasn’t any law against
them,
people just left them behind, most of the time. 

I expected serious trouble and was calculating how I could throw my hawk faster than any of the men could draw their weapons when the man in front spoke.

“Are you three leaving
Leport
?”  He wasn’t much for conversation, and I felt an immediate bond with the man.

“Who wants to know?”  Jake asked, looking the men over.

“Name’s Lane Tucker.
  I’m the law.”  The answer was short and to the point.  I liked that, and my instincts were telling me good things about this guy.

“Have we done something wrong?”  Jake asked, more polite this time.  Dad had always brought us up to respect the law.  You didn’t have to respect the man representing it, but you had to respect the law itself.

“No, I just wanted to thank you for dealing with that bully Casey.  He’s always pushing the boundaries, but never fully crosses them.”  Lane looked over our shoulders at the town.  “
Yet,
”
he
added.

“Tucker, we don’t want trouble, but twice today we’ve had run
ins
when before we would have to go looking for trouble ourselves.  What’s going on around here?” I asked.

Lane threw me a look that was part approval, and part admiration. “You’ve hit on something. There’s something going on, and we can’t quite get a handle on it.  People have gone missing, a new element is in town, and most it is all bad.  I feel like half the time I’m chasing ghosts.”  He looked out over the river.  “Sometimes I wish the zombies would come back.  At least then people would have an enemy with a face, not just something hidden under the surface.”

Jake surprised me with his next statement. 
“Tough luck, Tucker.
  But if you need any help, give us a call.  We’ll back you if you need it.”

I was stunned.  Jake was usually more than ready to let people solve their own problems.  But here he was, volunteering us for something that really wasn’t any of our business.