Mad Swine (Book 2): Dead Winter (6 page)

“Working out any trade or agreement with Providence isn’t going to happen,” I said, hoping to quash the idea. “If we’re going to seriously have this conversation and come up with ideas, Providence cannot be part of the solution.”

“He doesn’t like the idea so he shuts it down,” Stanley said to no one in particular, holding his hands out, palms up. “You are all warmongers at this table so you can’t think of any other solutions beyond shooting and violence to get what you want. Has anyone considered diplomatic channels? It certainly couldn’t hurt to talk to their leadership and see where things go, could it?”

Again Kat came to my aid. “We didn’t start this feud, Stanley, we responded to an attack. We did what we had to do to defend our home and our people and our livelihood. That’s not warmongering you fucking asshole.”

Stanley turned to me, his face an even deeper shade of red. “Do I have to sit here and be verbally abused for expressing my ideas and opinions? Why can’t we ever have a civil conversation that actually leads to solutions without someone always debasing me with vulgarities?”

“Because you always put your foot in your mouth, Stanley,” Reverend Reggie said. He’d been quiet since the meeting started and I’d almost forgotten he was at the table. “I think we all understand where Stanley is coming from, though, and I think he has some valid arguments if you can get past all the puffed up chest-pounding. Is there any real reason, beyond speculation, I mean, that we can’t extend an olive branch to the leadership at Providence and see if they’re willing to accept it?”

There was a very good reason, but I couldn’t tell them. Kat and the rest of the community believed that Providence’s attack had been unprovoked, that they’d simply wanted to kill us and pillage our supplies. They had no idea that Brian and I had executed Comedian to avenge Charlie’s murder.

“I hear what you’re both saying, really I do. I will give your comments serious consideration. In the meantime, we need to consider the alternatives.”

“We can send people out to try to make contact with other communities,” Stanley continued. “They can’t all be under Providence’s thumb.”

“Brian is already out there and—“

“He’s not coming back,” Stanley interrupted me again. “He’s either dead or found nothing. More than likely he’s dead. Sending one man out there alone and expecting him to survive are some very slim odds.”

“To the contrary, it’s easier for one man to survive on his own.” Kat fixed Stanley with her piercing eyes. “He wouldn’t have to worry about stopping to help people along the way. He could move quickly and hide easily. I’m sure he’s still alive out there somewhere.”

“If that were true, then he must have abandoned us,” Stanley said, his lips pursed in that stupid way they did when he thought he said something indisputable. “I mean, if he found someplace better, what reason would he have to return?”

All eyes fell upon me and the room grew suddenly quiet in anticipation of my reaction to Stanley’s words. Either they expected me to speak sharply to the man or to jump out of my chair and pounce on him and drag him from the room. Instead I answered slowly in a non-threatening voice. “I know Brian is alive and I know he’ll return as soon as he can. Now if we can get back to the topic and figure out some viable—“

Before I could finish my sentence, the front door burst open and Wesley came spilling in, tripping over the carpet and sliding a few feet across the wet floor. He was on his knees in an instant and came directly to me. He was out of breath and his cheeks were flush.

“Mr. Danzig…we need help quick…at Mr. Elmore’s house. Cody’s going…crazy…and I think Ms. Lara’s going in there…by herself.”

“Whoa, slow down, Wesley,” I said. Before I could get anything more from the boy, he turned and bolted back out the front door. Once again, all eyes bore on me, awaiting my response.

I stood and grabbed my gear. I said, “Kat you’re with me. Everyone else just stay put until I know what the hell is happening here.”

Wesley sprinted ahead with complete disregard for his environment. While Kat and I followed closely behind, I kept cringing, expecting him to slip and take a bone crunching fall on the frozen concrete. The crunch of snow beneath our boots and my heavy breathing were the only sounds I was aware of as we approached the two-story raised ranch that belonged to Mr. Elmore.

Mr. Elmore was a retired rancher who moved into our community after his wife died several years ago. He’d once told me that one morning he woke up and came to the conclusion that he had grown tired of working the land. He had dedicated his entire childhood and adult life to farming and now he just wanted to be able to relax and let someone else worry about the land. Besides, his heart just wasn’t into it anymore after his wife passed. I think he just couldn’t be around the things that most reminded him of her. Having recently lost my wife, I could certainly empathize.

As we approached Mr. Elmore’s home, Wesley stopped suddenly about twenty yards from the front door. He looked up at Kat when we caught up with him and took her hand into his own. Whatever was going on, Wesley was frightened.

“What happened, Wes?” Kat asked in her sweet voice, the one that she only used with Wesley and Sam these days.

“I was walking Cody and he was sniffing around looking for a spot to make his duty and then out of nowhere he started acting like a weirdo.”

“What do you mean, ‘weirdo’?” Kat asked.

“Well, he stopped all of sudden and the hair on his back was standing up like he had a Mohawk. Then he started growling and making other strange noises. I never heard him growl before. He was, like, really freaked out.”

“That’s okay, he wasn’t growling at you, Wes,” I said.

“I know that. He was looking at the house over there,” Wesley said and pointed to Mr. Elmore’s place. “The door was standing open and snow was blowing in there. I didn’t see anyone there. I don’t know why I felt scared, but I did, and that’s when I came to get Mr. Danzig.”

“Listen, Wesley, why don’t you go back and see if Cody’s calmed down, okay?” I asked. I wanted him out of the way if there was danger. “We’ll see what’s going on here. Go on now.”

Wesley turned and ran full-out back toward the CP, kicking up puffs of snow, again running with all he had, like kids do. This time, I couldn’t blame him ignoring the elements and safety. Looking at the Elmore residence gave me the creeps and I didn’t yet know why. Lara was standing outside the house, about twenty feet from the front porch. The Mosin was unslung but she held it lowered in front of her. She saw us coming and gave us a quick nod, then turned her attention back to the front door.

“What’s going on, Lara?” I called out from the steps.

She looked at me again and made quick eye contact and then turned back to the door. “I saw the kid walking the dog and then all of sudden the dog started going a little bit nuts. He was barking at the house and his fur was all up on his back. His eyes were like all rolled up in his head when he barked. It was unnerving. I saw the door open and the snow blowing in and accumulating there. Looks like it’s been open for a few hours.”

“Did you go in?” Kat asked. It was just a question, and an honest one, but Kat had a way of making her questions seem interrogatory.

Lara shook her head but said nothing. I could see in her eyes she was offended by the question, but mostly I think she was embarrassed that she hadn’t gone in to check it out. She was embarrassed that she was scared to go in by herself.

“It’s good you didn’t go in,” I said. “Let’s take a look together.”

The three of us ascended the steps with our weapons drawn. I paused at the open doorway for a moment and looked around. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting to find, maybe footprints or blood or anything that could give us an idea what we might be up against. The wind or something else entirely had pushed the door all the way open and six or seven inches of snow had already accumulated on the landing. A few inches of snow had been blown further into the home and a thin layer covered the first four steps leading down to the lower level family room.

Before advancing any further, I reached into my coat pocket and dug out several coins and handed a couple of them to Kat and kept a few for myself. We paused for a moment, listening carefully for any sounds of movement. Thirty seconds of silence spun out before I finally signaled for Kat and Lara to check downstairs, leaving the main floor to me. Kat nodded and immediately took the lead, starting down the short set of stairs that would lead to the lower level.

Moving with caution, I ascended to the main landing, my boots just whispers against the carpeted stairs. The design of the home was similar to mine. Designed around the open concept, the stairway would open up to a living room, dining room and kitchen combo with only one dividing wall which hid the fireplace chimney stack. From the top of the stairs, I could easily see into the living room and kitchen, and part of the dining room; all rooms appeared empty.

Stepping into the living room, I almost started when I heard the sound of coins bouncing against the ceramic tiles downstairs. One thing we learned early on about the infected is that they have great hearing. The other thing is that they could sit quietly for long periods of time waiting on unsuspecting prey to pass close by before finally breaking silence and ambushing. Deploying the coins was designed to get the things active and moving before we entered into an enclosed space—like Mr. Elmore’s house—and were surprised by any of the things lurking inside.

I held my breath a moment listening for any response elicited by Kat’s coins. Ten seconds of utter silence passed. I continued across the living room to the fireplace and knelt down in front of it. The stone of the hearth was frigid and barren. There hadn’t been a fire here in a while. I suddenly became aware that I could see vapors escape my lips with every exhale. It was cold in the house. Much colder than it should have been if the door was only open a few hours.

As I started to rise to my feet I heard the whispering of approaching feet on the carpet coming from my left. I looked up expecting Kat or Lara, but instead I saw one of the creatures. He was a man in his forties wearing a barn coat, flannel shirt and a pair of chambray work pants. His black hair was short cropped and parted on the left, although it was greasy and unkempt. The infected man had a huge gash on his forehead, just above the left eye, and his blood stained that side of his face. His mottled gray skin was starting to turn an ugly green shade in some places. He walked with an odd limp and I noticed that his right foot was bent at an odd angle at the ankle.

When I stood to my full height the man’s eyes widened as he set his sights on me, becoming acutely aware of my presence. A moan escaped his chapped lips and his pace quickened as he limped more aggressively toward me. He had already covered more than half the distance of the hall before I’d noticed the sounds of his approach. Now that he was less than ten feet away, excited by the prospect of tearing into live flesh, he made his mad dash for me.

With little time to spare, and with little thought, I held the splitting maul out in front of me. The handle struck the creature sternly in the chest as his momentum carried him heavily into me. Although there was no power behind my blocking motion, it gave me a moment to plan my next move. I kneed the bastard in the groin—although that action could no longer elicit the expected response it once did from the living—and then put all my weight behind the axe, pushing the man to the floor, using one of my feet to trip him up simultaneously.

Immediately the crazy started to struggle to his feet. For a moment his movements reminded me of a turtle on its back, kicking wildly in an attempt to get its feet back under its body. When the thing made it up on one knee, presenting a larger target, I used that opportunity and sprung forward, swinging my axe and slamming the flat end of the splitting maul against the side of the infected man’s head. Upon impact, blood, bone and brain-matter exploded into the air and rained all over the one wall that divided the living room from the kitchen.

Crouched on one knee beside the corpse, I used the dead thing’s shirt to clean the blood off my axe. Up close, the mottled skin looked alien with greenish and bruise-colored swirls. The skin looked extremely porous and textured, almost like looking at a discolored golf ball. It had been a while since I had been this close to one of them and my curiosity got the better of me. I lifted the shirt further, exposing the rib cage and a slightly bloated stomach. My gloved finger disappeared slightly into its spongy skin when I prodded it. The skin felt moist and slick.

Unconsciously I wiped my finger against my jeans. My heart jumped in my chest when I heard Lara suddenly yell out my name. I had been so focused on the dead man that I hadn’t realized that she and Kat had come up to investigate the noises I’d made after the two had cleared the lower level. But Lara’s exclamation had nothing to do with the splattered brains, or the fact that I was playing doctor with a corpse, but instead her wide eyes warned of something behind me.

Another crazy appeared out of the dining room just several feet from where I crouched next to its dead friend. The woman – at least that’s what she appeared to be – was moving at quite a clip and had closed the distance between the dining room and living room within seconds. Suddenly my stomach clenched and I felt a sickening ball of heat coil up inside of me as I realized the woman was practically on top of me and I had no time to defend myself.