Snareville II: Circles (13 page)

“Colonel One Shot has poisoning from Agent Orange. With some people it took them sooner than others, but mostly, the end result is the same.”

“I used to spray the stuff out the side door of choppers when I was a Crew Chief in the First Cav. Quite a thrill to hover over a minefield and spray weed killer, but it beat going into a hot LZ. Didn’t know it’d kill me too. The stuff just wasn’t as fast as a bullet.”

“Anything we can do for you, Kenny?” Pepper asked.

“Yes. You can listen up and not argue with me. I can’t keep leading you folks. I didn’t really want the job in the first place, but that’s how it fell three years ago. We’ve lost a few and gained a few. Lots of babies being born. A few of you learned what you’re doing. Some better than others.”

He reached under his blanket, pulled out a little black box.

“Danny, come here. My last official duty is to promote you to Major. I’m giving you command of this outfit. When I’m gone, you can debate it, or elect someone else. But right now, I don’t want no argument. You’ve learned well. You do one hell of a job. Do your best, Son. You’re on the right track.”

I took the box. Inside were the small gold oak leaf clusters of a full Major. “Kenny…I can’t do this.”

“Yes you can. You got good people around you. Some pros, like Gibson. Some good self taught people like Hunter. If I didn’t think you could do it, I’d have given it to someone else. I already called your brother Tom and told him what was going on. He’ll support you too.” He closed his eyes again.

My throat got tight. “Thank you.” That was all I could think to say.

Gibson stepped forward. He took the Captain’s bars from my collar, handed them to Pepper. Silently he took the Major’s leaves from the box and put them in place. With that, he took a step back and saluted. The rest of the group followed. I returned the salute while trying to keep the tears out of my eyes. It didn’t work well.

“Now go. Let me die in peace,” Kenny said quietly.

Everyone in the room turned, gave him a last salute. He returned it, briefly. “Dismissed,” he whispered. We left.

Chapter 18

King Fredrick sat on his throne in the center court of Sandburg Mall. He was still. His body well fed and pink. His troops had recently discovered a small cluster of humans in a small town to the south and brought him two of the survivors of their raid. He had dined well on the man, his flesh brought strength and life back to Fredrick. The girl, his dinner’s fourteen year old daughter, sat chained to a steel ring on the platform beside him. He had used her twice already. He tried to plant the seed that was taken from him by the blond woman. In three days, he would know whether he had obtained a new queen, or another subject.

Now he sat quietly, eyes closed and blocked out her soft sobs. His mind drifted out; away from Galesburg and the confines of his body. Cornfields unfolded around him, dead stalks fallen in a tangle in the long prairie grasses. He felt a tickle to the east and turned his mind that direction. Galva sat empty. The Cock Blockers were gone. A breeze sighed through the open buildings. Glass lay scattered through the streets. He wondered where they went; wondered if they followed these interlopers.

More to the east now. Kewanee sat, a burned out hull. Skeletons littered the streets here. Rusted guns lay in the grass. Those who survived the coming of the new order took it upon themselves to kill off others. It was senseless to waste all that food, but people were difficult to understand. Some lived through the war, but left the town. He didn’t know where they had gone to. There was no way for him to track them, either.

Still, the tickle pulled him east. More empty fields. More prairie. The ground began to rise and fall with the cuts of time and water. His mind fell down a long valley, followed a wide creek, until it came upon the town bristling with defenses, guns and people. She was strong here. He could feel her. Feel inside her. She was like him. He followed. She lay in the hospital. Her name was Cindy. The bullet hurt her. She feared for her baby. For her husband. Fredrick, sitting on his wooden throne, smiled. He wouldn’t kill this one. She was like him. She could be his queen. All he needed to do was remove her husband from her. He brushed her forehead with the tips of his fingers. She shivered as if frost touched her brow.

As he left Cindy, he felt another tickle. This one different, but somewhere close. He let his mind follow. This time he drifted across town. Past homes where children played. Past horses and dogs. Past the homes of fleshies. He felt himself begin to drool as he watched all the fresh meat walk through their little world. Then he found her. She kneeled in her garden, wide brimmed hat upon her head to keep away the sun. She pulled weeds from around the plants and dropped them into a bucket. Tess. This one was Tess. Her belly was swollen less than Cindy’s. Another queen for his kingdom. He smiled as he pulled his mind back to his body.

He became aware of the mall again. The low moans of his subjects, the sob of the girl. A serpent smile slid across his black teeth.

“I know where we are going, my people,” Fredrick said as he stood. “We must go to the east to find our new beloveds.”

Moans, garbled words flowed back at him from all corners of the building. Many of his subjects hungered, as there were not enough people in the town to feed them all.

“We leave soon, but we must eat well, for it is a long march.”

“Whu…What about me?” The girl at his feet whispered. “I don’t want to go.”

Fredrick looked into her big hazel eyes. Fear, desperation reflected back at him. For a moment, he felt something other than hunger. “You are free to leave,” he said. He bent to unlock the chain around her neck. “Go quickly now. Don’t look back.”

With the speed of a cat, she jumped from the stage. She glanced back once, then ran through the wall of rotted flesh, dodging, twisting her body around the molded corpses. She got twenty yards before Fredrick nodded to his subjects, allowing them to engulfed her. Her screams filled the hall as she kicked and flailed at them. One silenced her as he twisted her head backward until her spine popped and her eyes glazed over.

“Save me a breast, boys, I need a snack.”

Chapter 19

Four days later, they buried Kenny “One Shot” Rodgers. All the communities in the area sent representatives. Colonel Tom Jackson came down from the Rock Island Arsenal with a small gaggle of helicopters. Kenny was buried with full military honors in the new cemetery established in town. Some said he wouldn’t like it and he probably wouldn’t have, but Dan wanted to honor the man who had served his country and then his people so well. As Taps rolled away through the valley, it was chased by rifle fire from the squad who gave the twenty one gun salute. Normally, no one wanted to fire that many rounds, for fear of attracting attention, but with the mood people were in, it was a foolish zed who would stumble up to the wires.

Afterward, there was a ceremony in which Dan was recognized as the new leader of the Raiders. He was given a small ribbon by his brother, Tom, who spoke for the Military Branch of the Northern Illinois and Eastern Iowa Alliance. Dan’s own people already accepted him as Kenny’s natural successor. The representatives from the towns in the area came around during the wake and affirmed him as well. It was an emotionally draining day. For all in attendance, it was the end of an era. The first three years people had relied on the guidance of a veteran who was a great organizer and a good leader. Now, they would rely on the star pupil.

Dan stumbled into his house at the end of the wake. He couldn’t take one more conversation. One more quiet congratulatory handshake. Cindy, Ella and Pepper followed him through the door. He turned the bolt behind them and threw the boards across the brackets. They were in for the night.

“I look like I’ve got a harem,” Dan said as he sat Michael down on the table. His son was bundled into a carrier. Dan set about undoing the snaps and buckles. Ella set Rachel on the floor and started to undo her coat. Rachel was off in a flash to play with her toys. It had been a long day for her and she fussed the last hour. Silently, Dan began to change his son’s diaper as Pepper sat with a gasp. She was surely tired of being pregnant and ready to get the extra weight off her back.

Cindy wrapped her good arm around Dan from behind. He could feel her push into him. He leaned back into her as he returned to his task. “You okay with all this, Husband?”

For a moment, he said nothing. “I have to be, I guess, Wife,” Dan said. “Ken gave me the job. I don’t know whether I’m up to it.”

“Kenny wouldn’t have given it to you if he didn’t think you could do it,” Pepper said. “No one’s said any different. You’ve got the backing from Tom’s headquarters. Your Marines will follow you to Hell and back. So would any Raider worth his patch.”

Dan gave her a crooked smile. “Yeah. You don’t think that’s a lot to live up to?” He set Michael on the floor. He scampered off to join his sister.

“You’ll do fine, Daddy. We’re all family. You’ve got us. You’ve got the rest of the town. We’ve gotten this far because we’ve all worked together. I don’t think you’re going to change that and turn us into some communal dictatorship thing.”

Dan laughed and shook his head. “Where’d you learn about communal dictatorships?”

“History class. But we’ve already got the commune thing going on.”

They looked at one another and laughed again.

“Yeah, you’re right there,” He pulled down a cribbage board as Pepper put some water on to boil for tea. They would play teams for an hour or so before they went to bed. Dan got his notebook from the desk in the living room, opened a page and annotated Ken’s death. Under that, he wrote he had been promoted and given the leadership of the Raiders. He sat for a moment, then he decided he would add more later and closed the book.

Cindy’s legs twitched. Under the sheets, she walked. She was propped up with pillows at her back. Dan lay curled around Pepper next to her on the king sized bed. Cindy’s arm was still immobile and it was a bitch for her to sleep. Her feet took on a faster pace, small whimpers escaped her throat. Dan stirred a moment beside her.

Cindy shot upright with a scream. “Nononono… ” Dan reached out for her, and she turned on him with a snarl, eyes blank. He hesitated, but then pulled her to him, held her tight against his chest. The snarls continued, soon turning to sobs. Pepper flipped on the small lamp beside the bed, turned and rubbed Cindy’s back until the crying subsided.

Dan eased his wife into her pillows.

“He was here, Danny,” Cindy said as she tapped her head. “He was up here in my dreams. I couldn’t get him out.”

“Who, Honey?” Pepper asked.

“The crazy king. He got in down in Galesburg. He found me, Danny. He wants me. I killed his queen and his baby. He saw me do it. He wants me to take her place. He wants to take our baby, Danny.” She fell into sobs again. Dan wrapped her in his arms as she fell sideways against his chest.

After an hour, Cindy slept. Dan eased out of the bed with Pepper.

“This isn’t good, Dan,” Pepper whispered as they stood in the hall. “How can this guy be in her head?”

“I don’t know.” Dan held the cell phone in his hand. The face read two o’clock in the morning. He flipped the screen open and began to text. “She said she felt him in her mind down in Galesburg.”

“Who you sending that to?”

“Gibson. I want to know if Tess is having the same kind of night. Cindy told me they share some kind of odd link. That they used to be able to walk into a swarm of zeds and no one would attack them.” He pushed the button and watched the message disappear into the ether.

“Dan, she’s been fine for a long time. What if she’s reverting to zed mode?”

“She never was a zombie, Pep.” Dan looked at the woman he’d been married to longest. He had asked Pepper if they should take Cindy into the family and she’d agreed. “She was a lab rat. An infected innocent.”

“She never told us if she was in the practice of eating her friends and family.”

Dan felt his face get hot. “From what we’ve been told, she went from the lab at The Farm, to the CDC in Chicago. She and Tess drank blood, ate raw beef and deer liver. You know that. I don’t think she ever went cannibal.”

“I hope she’s not now. I love her too, Danny, but we’ve got babies in the house. We’ve got Ella. What happens if she has another one of these dreams and starts looking for a meal?”

The cell phone chirped. Dan opened it. Gibson confirmed that Tess had just woken up from a nightmare. She said the same thing. The King was coming. The King was in her head. He asked what it meant. Dan sent back the message that they would talk in the morning.

“What do we do, Danny? Both of them are being affected.”

“I don’t know. We’ve got to figure something out though.”

“Some people are going to suggest a bullet.”

Dan felt his guts harden. “That is not an option.”

“Yet.”

“Never will be. There’s got to be a solution.”

“Kill this King Fred, if that’s who’s doing it.”

“Might be the only solution,” Dan said. He took Pepper’s hand in his. “But right now, I need more sleep.”

Pepper hesitated for a moment, then followed. Cindy’s deep breathing assured them she was asleep. They slid into bed with her, snuggled together, Dan with his back against Cindy, Pepper spooned into Dan. It was an hour before Pepper dozed. Dan didn’t know if he slept at all.

With the sun, Dan met with his brother Tom, Wallace, Gibson and the other officers in town. Wallace laid out the methods he’d suggested for using his weapons. The artillery shells would have to be loaded as aerosols and lobbed either into a target, or upwind of it. O’Shea’s antivirus would have to drift into the swarm and kill them off permanently. It was a matter of getting the fix into the shells and making sure they were on target with the rounds.

“How effective is this stuff?” Wallace asked.

“According to O’Shea’s tests, one hundred percent,” Tom answered. “We’ve tried it on fully infected zeds and people like Tess and Cindy. Kills the virus within minutes. Corpse drops over. End of deader.”