Snareville II: Circles (8 page)

“Get the mares knocked up?”

“I think so. We bred them each about three times. Those studs have more endurance than me.”

“You keep up with us fine. Why’d he come back with you?”

I explained that he had some ideas on how to get O’Shea’s zed killer out there and figured to ride along and talk with us to run the ideas past the group. Plus, he could have the rest of our mares bred while he was here and we wouldn’t have to make another trip. I think he just wanted to get out of town too. See what the world looked like past the wire. Can’t say’s I blame him.

We washed off in the bathroom, pulled on some clothes and headed downstairs. As much as I just wanted to lie in bed with my wives, there were things to do now that I was home. Pepper was just laying lunch out on the table as we got downstairs. Bill and Cathy had beat us down and sat with Heather on one side of the table. The babies played in the front room. Ella was still out. The three of us sat on the other side of the table. Talk revolved around the trip, what happened, what we saw and how Savanna looked.

We told them about Cherry, about Wally’s little island. How there was a lot of people who simply lived on the river now. Piracy and general lawlessness I couldn’t comment much on. There were pockets of problems and the Mongol Horde and the Militias popping up here and there might be a worry, but mostly people were still learning to survive with zeds wandering the countryside.

We finished lunch as the kids tromped into the room. Rachel climbed up into my lap, Mikey simply held onto my chair and patted my leg as he grinned up at me. I cuddled Rachel and she touched my face as she jabbered on at me about butterflies. Bill had much the same reception. I thought about the fact there would soon be four more children in this group. We had to expand, or one of our little groups had to move to a new house. One of the reasons we had the place across the street in working order.

Pepper stood, woke me out of my thoughts.

“Kenny’s going to want a report. I’ll walk with you if Cindy can handle the dishes.”

“That an order, Sergeant?” Cindy grinned.

“Yes, Private. You had your time with him. My turn.”

“I never had this problem three years ago,” I said as I stood.

“Funny,” Pepper smiled. “You complaining? I’m sure Cindy and I could arrange for you to have a break.”

I pulled her into my arms. She slid her belly beside me so we could get closer. “Don’t you dare,” I said as I kissed her softly.

Cindy and Cathy shooed the rest of us out the door. We gathered Wallace and Cherry from across the street and made our way down to Kenny’s office at the library. I laced my fingers into Pepper’s and just enjoyed the quiet afternoon.

“Did you know our daughter wants to get married?” I asked Pepper.

“She finally told you, did she?”

“Yeah. Right after we fought through a swarm.”

“You didn’t mention how bad the swarm was.”

“Didn’t want to worry Cindy.”

“Ah. Well, Ella didn’t want to worry you. She didn’t know how you’d react to having your fifteen year old daughter want to go and get married. So, what’d you say?”

“How long you known about this?”

“Since he asked her.”

“Why not tell me?”

“She did tell you. Just not right away. Dan, you’re the commander around here. You got a heavy rep. She knows you love her, but there’s still a touch of fear, like any girl would have at her age asking to get married.”

“Makes sense.” I kicked a little rock with the toe of my boot. In the distance, I could hear the troops on the firing line as shots echoed through town.

“So what’d you say?” Pepper looked up at me. Her big brown eyes full of questions. I smiled and kissed her forehead.

“I told her she could get married. Hundred and twenty years ago, she’d already be married and have a kid and he’d be working in some mill somewhere.”

She was quiet for a few steps. “So we’ve reverted that far.”

“In some ways. Things aren’t the same, Baby. Look at the four of us. Most of us here in town have gone tribal. We’ve doubled up and some of us have tripled up. And I don’t think couples like Jake and Rick will be adding to the population. We’ll survive, but it won’t be the way it was three years ago for a long time.”

“If ever,” Cherry said from behind us.

“If ever,” Pepper repeated.

Chapter 9

As we walked into the library Kenny was sitting at his desk, going over reports. We seemed to have become the central location for the alliance, outside of the Rock Island Arsenal. Our computers were linked through what was left of the internet. My brother, Colonel Tom Jackson, had sent out his engineers to repair as many systems as he could and get them running again, so we could all communicate with one another. Kenny spat daily reports out of his computer to go over. From there, he would make replies if needed, or file away for attention later.

I introduced him to Wallace and Cherry. We all sat, after some chairs had been dragged in from the other room. Conversation went around the room as we settled. Soon talk turned to the trip. We were successful in getting the mares bred Wallace brought the studs back down here to continue to breed the rest of our mares.

“Can that militia group get across the river by you, Lieutenant?” Kenny asked.

“No sir. We blew the center of the bridge deck out between us and Sabula. Little det cord and some C-4 and there’s a nice big hole followed by a drop straight to the water.”

“What about Dubuque?”

“Friends own Dubuque. Bridge is well controlled up there. Between Fulton and Clinton, we blew the whole thing. Next stop is the Quad Cities and you folks control those. Only way for them to cross right now is swim or boats.”

“That would most likely put them on foot then, as I don’t think they could find a ferry to get their equipment across.”

“Correct, sir. I have the only ferry outside of Minnesota that I know of.”

“The Mongols?”

“Used to be a biker gang. Mostly still are. They won’t try us unless they’ve gotten a whole lot bigger. They’re hit and run scavengers.”

“And that pack of zeds managed to move from Plano to Prophetstown in a week?”

“That’s what I figure, Kenny,” I said. “There were some people in there from Princeton too, from some of the shirts I saw. I don’t know if that means they’re clustering up somehow, or if they’ve been in the same pack the whole time.”

“We’ll have to put word out, then and see what our other communities have noticed.” He turned to Wallace. “Now, Lieutenant, supposed you tell me why you rode all the way back down here with Danny?”

Wallace grinned. “Well, Sir, what if I told you I might have an answer to your zed problem?”

Kenny sat back in his chair. “I’m all ears, young man.”

Wallace went on to explain that he was part of the Chemical Weapons Division of the Army National Guard stationed in Galesburg. He used to drive south to his duty weekends when he lived in the Quad Cities. He had moved up to Savanna and rather than transfer to a unit with a different MOS, the military allowed him the extra drive time. He was supposed to report in for duty about the time hell broke loose with the infection and he was trapped up north. He lost contact with his unit and didn’t know how they fared, or even if they were still in existence.

“So what you’re saying, Lieutenant Wallace, is that if your equipment and gear are still intact in Galesburg, we could use it as a delivery system for Dr. O’Shea’s zed killer juice?”

“Yes, Sir. All we’d have to do is get there and run an inventory of what we have. I doubt there’s much left of the rifle company, but the gas passers are probably still in order. Equipment wise, that is.”

Kenny looked at each one of us. “You up for a road trip?” he asked me.

I looked at Pepper, then at my other troops. “Damned right, Boss.”

Chapter 10

“Whatcha think, Boss?” The man lay in the weeds next to his leader. Heavy leather vest, ripped jeans, thick work boots weren’t the best for going concealed, but they weren’t the kind of group that relied much on stealth.

His boss, Venom, watched Prophetstown smolder though a set of five hundred dollar binoculars. “I think someone was here, Shitter.”

“Why’s that?” Shitter took the binoculars passed to him.

“Look around the bridge. Lot of dead zeds. Town didn’t set itself on fire.”

Shitter scanned the bridge deck, around the park on the other side. Smoke rose from the last building on the west side of the street downtown. A few zeds still stumbled around in town, most of them by the high school. He could see charred skin and burnt clothes on a few.

“Who you reckon? Someone still alive in town?” He handed the binoculars back to Venom.

“I don’t think so. Town looks too empty. If someone was still alive, it’d make sense to hole up in the school. I think someone was passing through and torched it. Trail of corpses lead through the park. Lot of empty shell casings on the road too. I think someone had to fight across the bridge.” He looked at Shitter. They both eased back down past the crest of the hill.

“Whatcha say, Boss? We goin’ across?” Shitter asked.

Venom walked back toward his bike. “We’re going to have to, but the bikes ain’t going to cut it. Let’s get them rolled up in the trailers.”

They joined a group of a hundred others, dressed in whatever scraps of clothes they had. Wasn’t much to mark them as part of the same group, except for the fact they stayed together. The core of the group was a dozen members of the Mongols biker club. Many had brought their old ladies along. Those in turn found as many friends and family as they could. Others were people picked up along the way, either as captives or women gathered to add to the choice of fuck toys for the men.

Venom banged the side of his pickup. “You was right, Hoss. Someone came this way. Figure it was your group.”

Havers slid away from the man as far as he could in the bed of the truck. The cable locked to the dog collar around his neck didn’t allow him to go far. His arms had gone numb locked behind his back.

“Fine, let me go then. You know which way they’re going.”

“Oh, hell no,” Shitter said. “You need to get out now and then. You been cooped up in that rotten little town how long? Been ten years now at least.”

“Fuck you, James.”

Laughter rippled through the group as people pushed their bikes into the back of trailers and pickups. Havers scooted out of the way as a bike rolled into place beside him. Venom locked it in place with straps and hopped out of the bed. Havers shook his head as another couple of flies landed on the crusted blood that ran down his face. He didn’t know if the damned things wanted a snack or planned on laying eggs.

Venom jumped into the cab of his truck. Spider, a spindly woman who seemed to be constantly in motion, waited for him in the passenger seat with a shotgun between her knees. Venom put two pistols and several magazines beside him on the seat. She grinned a wicked little smile at him as she twitched. They had traded for some meth up north and she was tweaked out quite nicely. He took a hit of his own from a joint rolled with the stuff, placed it back in the ashtray in the dash. He dropped the truck into gear as the cocktail slammed into his system. With a scream, they hit the pavement.

The Mongols rolled into town. Before they even had targets, half of them were blasting rounds into space. Shell casings flew away to bounce on the pavement. A deader stepped out in front of the Venom’s truck. He plowed the man over, ground him underneath and kept on.

He stopped before they entered downtown. Zeds shuffled toward them from different stores around them. Guns began to find targets in earnest. Some died easy; some twitched and jerked as they were blasted to pieces before the kill shot. A storefront of one of the downtown brick buildings had collapsed outward as it burned. The street was blocked. With a tank, they could get through. Venom backed up a few feet, turned down a side street and plowed his way through a pack of zeds that stumbled down the street to the sound of the noise.

One was lucky enough to grab the bed of his truck as he passed. She started to drag herself inside as the convoy continued through town. Havers screamed and kicked at the woman. She moaned as she pulled herself further into the bed. The barkeeper screamed louder, kicked up as hard as he could and caught her under the chin. Bones ground, tendons popped and the zed lost her grip as she fell backwards out of the truck. Shitter’s vehicle rolled over the top of her. She squirted black slime from her orifices as he drove on. Several other trucks did the same, until someone drove over her skull and put an end to her.

Chapter 11

Two days later, we had a map spread out on a big oak table in the main room of the library. Illinois took up about half the table, as we picked out our own little flyspeck of a town. We had never amounted to much to the mapmakers before. I figure they’d have to make us bigger on the map someday, but it wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Cindy highlighted our little dot.

“Okay,” Wallace said, “When I was going to drill, I’d come down, hit Interstate 80, head east, pick up I-74 and go straight into Galesburg.” He ran his finger over the route. “It was a straight shot in, fast and easy. You can pick that up from here. You’d just have to hit 74 going west from here.”

“What’s out there?” Cherry asked. “Beyond your town and Princeton, I mean. I don’t know much about around here.”

Pepper straightened, rubbed the small of her back. “We don’t know much that far west. Kewanee is wiped out.” She put her finger on another dot of a town. “Beyond Galva, it’s wild and wooly. We don’t have any contact with anyone that way. We’ve built up mostly along the rivers and up into the north like with you guys.”

“Out on the prairies, defense was a lot more difficult. There was no water at your backs, nothing to keep the zeds out,” Kenny said. He sat at the head of the table. I glanced at him. He was pale, washed out looking, but a tiny bead of sweat ran down his forehead. “We know that after the zeds ran through Kewanee, the humans that survived spent the better part of a year killing one another. Same in Peoria. I figure it happened a lot in other towns.”