Surviving The Aftermath (Book 1): The Dead Linger (27 page)

“Thanks man. I’ve wanted to get out of there for a long time now.” The boy spoke.

“How long have you been there?” Tom had to ask.

“Since they kidnapped my mom and me. There was a group of 10, we were staying in an old motel by the freeway, they came upon us and took. We were blindfolded and gagged. I seriously have no idea where I am.”

“So you just left your mom in that hell hole?” Tom said with appalled shock.

“No way.” He sucked in more air. “They killed her, a long time ago.” He finished. They continued to stand in silence, Tom wasn’t sure what to do. They kid could be a plant, but he still felt bad.

The kid stood up, dusted off his butt. “Listen thanks again man for getting me out. Maybe I’ll catch you around sometime.” As he started to head off on his own deeper into the woods. Tom was shocked. The kid couldn’t be more than 13 or 14 and he was ready to head out on his own. Quickly losing visual of the kid he took off in the same direction, wait, maybe this was part of the ploy, he thought. Make me think he doesn’t want to come until I insist. Tom didn’t know what to do in this moment, he’d become overly paranoid from having spent months trapped here. What to do.

“Hey.”

“Listen mister I don’t have a beef with you. Please just let me go.” He was backing up holding his hands up.

“No just wait.” Tom said as he caught up. “Why don’t you come with me?” He waited for the obvious answer.

“Why?”

Shocked Tom was. “Why? Really, you’re asking why?”

“Yeah. How do I know you don’t want to enslave me like them, or worse yet, try and make your little bitch or something like that?”

“First, I don’t swing that way, second, the place I’m going, you don’t have to stay at if you don’t like it. And third, what other options do you have? Honestly. You’re completely lost you said. Do you even know what direction you heading?”

The boy looked around in the darkened woods, listening to the crickets and possible owl hooting. “No” He finally said.

“Listen, I thought you were some sort of spy for them, I was ready to snap your neck because I thought you wanted to lead them to me.”

“There’s no way . .” Tom cut him off.

“Just calm down. Even if you are, there’s no way they could break in fort that we’ve built up, they don’t have the weapons. So you can lead them to the place if you really want, but they’ll never get in.” Tom was trying to bluff to see the boy’s reaction to all this news.

“I can’t believe you’d think I’d spy for those fucks. They killed my mom. I hate them. I tried to burn down there house once.” He lifted his shirt and showed him the whip marks all around his torso front and back. “They beat me so bad I couldn’t walk for days. I hate them.” Both guys were quiet.

“If you don’t mind me coming with you, I would like it, some place I don’t have to worry about being raped at night, maybe a decent meal once a day. I can earn my way.” They boy said and held out his hand for a shake. Tom had to decide, was this good or bad?

This waiting was hell. Jill managed to sleep part of the night, but she was up by 4am, too wired to sleep and uncomfortable. Yes her shoulder was healing but sleeping was still awkward. She had to go do something. Dressing and heading over to the buildings she saw a few others getting a jump start on the day’s activities. They were trying to assemble enough stuff for farming, which was the next big trip. Heading out to farm land and see if there was potential livestock left. Some of the farmers, or people close to it, said fences might have fallen or been knocked down and the animals could have gotten out and actually be surviving. Not many had hope for this, but it seemed like a starting point. Jill was up on the roof, sitting with her weapons enjoying the sunrise. Meghan sauntered over. They had actually gotten a lot closer since Jack and she became an item. It was amazing the hook up ratio in this place.

“Morning.”

“Morning to you too.” Jill replied. “How’s your mom?”

“She finally got to sleep, Lydia delivered late into the night, everyone’s good but tired.”

“That’s just amazing to me, here we are in the middle of chaos and zombies, and people are still reproducing.”

“Well how to we keep life going.” Meghan added.

“Just think, a generation of children will be born that don’t know anything but this horrible existence. This ruined world. What kind of a life is that? Doesn’t it just seem cruel?” Jill looked at Meghan.

“I don’t know, I guess I couldn’t imagine a world without babies. I mean they keep the species alive right.”

“But growing up in this world . . .” Jill didn’t finish.

“What about the babies that were born in the 30’s? The Great depression was full of hopeless despair, it lasted almost 2 decades. Would you tell those people not to have kids? Or what about the countries ravaged by war and bombings. Do people just stop living?” Jill was quiet, damn Meghan and her good points.

“I guess I just want to make it better for them you know. So they would never have to worry about zombies and fighting for food and growing up like this.”

“Maybe there children will have it easier.”

“Hey Guys, you’re up early.” Jack and Mike joined them up on the roof.

“Yeah just getting ready for our shifts.”

“How’s the shoulder?” Jack winced when he asked.

“Getting better every day, Beth is working me really hard. She says in a few days I get to start lifting weighted items. We’ll see how that goes.” Others were starting to make their way to the roof, and other areas below, getting ready for the day to begin.

“Well I guess I’ll have to the kitchen for my shift. I’m sick of cooking.” Jill rose and headed downstairs. Immediately Meghan became cold with just her and Jack alone on the roof. He had moved into his new place and done nothing but ignore her for weeks. She’d also seen him talking to one of the other girls, flirty and what not. Meghan got the hint. She stood and proceeded to take her place along the roof. Jack sauntered over towards Meghan.

“Hey can I . .” Jack started to say but Meghan turned and walked in the other direction. He stood stunned by this, but went around to the other side to get in front of her, she quickly turned back around again, but Jack was much faster and prepared this time. He managed to block her path.

“Move.”

“No, I need to talk to you.”

“Move.”

“No, please, let me explain.” Meghan shoved Jack hard but all he did was grab her arms and hold her in place.

“Please, stop.”

“No!” She tried getting out of his grasp.

“Please!” He held her. “Stop, I need to talk to you.”

“Oh yeah, now you want to talk? What about 4 weeks ago when I tried to talk to you?” She stood waiting for his answer. “But now because you NEED something it’s fine? Well I needed you and you weren’t there. So fuck you!” She ripped her arms out of his grasp and marched on. Jack squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t know what to do or say. This was uncharted territory for him. He turned and sprinted after her coming to a sliding halt on the graveled roof.

“I know I’m an ass.” She rolled her eyes and turned her head. He grabbed her cheeks to face him again. “But I didn’t do it to hurt you.” She went to speak but he silenced her. “I honestly didn’t know I could hurt you, not like that.” She was speechless, he seemed sincere, and honest, accepting what an ass he’d been.

“You almost sound like a grown up.” She replied.

“I’m starting to feel like one.” He moved his hand to caress her cheek and leaned in to kiss her.

It was morning. Tom bolted awake, taking in his surroundings. He’d done it. He’d broken out. He heard the snoring and saw the boy, that’s right, he was taking him with. He spent every very minute wondering if it was a good or bad choice. Shaking the kid awake he said. “Hey we need to get going in case they try and track us.” Mumbling the boy waved him off. “Let’s go or were dead when they find us.” That got the kid moving a bit more. After a quick pop tart and some water they went back to the trek. Tom had no idea how far they walked last night, it was a good 3 or 4 hours’ worth of hoofing it. Hopefully there was some good distance. It was later in the day than he’d like, so he wanted to try and make up some time. Two hours had passed in silence before the boy stated he was hungry again. “Let’s walk one more mile.” Tom said.

“How do you know how far we are going?”

“I’m judging the distance on the amount of time we walk. Not super accurate but it’s a decent base to start from.” Tom pulled out some beef jerky and they split it and continued to walk with the noon sun high overhead. They were lost, but hadn’t seen a zombie since the night before and hadn’t heard anything from the hell hole yet. Tom knew it was too soon to start celebrating, but he couldn’t help but smile when he thought about those fuckers faces when they realized he’d snuck out. He knew the general direction they were heading, he knew maybe the next day they would come across something he might recognize, or at least he’d hoped so. The boy was walking behind him trying to keep up. He knew he was tired, but they needed to gain ground, put some miles between them and the bad guys. An hour or two later and the kid was dragging again, he had to do something to keep him going.

“So what’s your name?”

“Brian.” The boy replied.

“How old are you?”

“13.”

“Well for 13 you know how to handle yourself pretty well.” They continued chatting while walking, in fact Tom noticed the kid perked up and seemed to push harder. The day was getting on, Tom had hoped to eventually come across a park, or golf course, even a path. They’d walked all day in these woods, he did his best to keep the sun on his shoulders, and he feared they had somehow got turned around or something. But that couldn’t be.

“How much farther is it?” Brian started the whine. Tom quickly grabbed him a chocolate bar and broke it in half to help tide them over.

“We’ll have to bed down again tonight, and maybe by tomorrow night we’ll be there.” Tom replied. He didn’t like sleeping outside, too worried that something would creep up on him. Silence again.

Dusk was setting upon them, Tom was actually starting to fret, and it had been hours since they’d seen there last zombie and a day plus since the last human, anxiety was beginning to take hold, what if no one was left? What if they had crossed through some other dimension? Tom shook his head, had to stay focused he repeated to himself. His mind was wandering way off track.  That’s when he heard the splashing. He quickly halted and put his arm out to stop Brian. “Ssshhhh!” He said. They both listened, another faint splash. There was water nearby, but what was causing the splashes. The crept forward, as best as you could in the forest on a bed of old dry leaves that had nowhere else to go. They could see the trees getting less dense and the start of a clearing ahead. Still hiding they saw a pond or lagoon depending on where you were from. Ducks were splashing, flying and sailing into the water. The water looked so inviting, Tom didn’t hesitate, he started stripping down to his boxers and jumped in followed closely by Brian. They laughed and enjoyed the cold soak in the water. It was fabulous, neither could remember the last time they’d had a bath of any kind. You usually just kind of sponged yourself clean in the hell hole, if you would lucky enough to have some spare water.

“Come on, we can start a fire for a little bit to warm up and dry off, but we can’t let it burn too long.” Tom said while getting out of the water. He was banking on being deep enough in the woods that if there was a road near they wouldn’t see the light from the fire, and that the sky was dark enough not to see the smoke. How he’d love to catch a fish and cook it. But they had no way to do this and he didn’t want to waste time. He just wanted to eat something and get to sleep so they could rise with the sun. He was still mad that they had slept so long this morning. They passed some cookies and beef jerky between each other, while they dried from the fire.

“So what’s this place like that were going to?” Brian asked with his mouth full.

“Well it’s sort of like that other place.” Tom said pointing over his should, and Brian stopped chewing abruptly. “People just trying to survive. We have managed to grow our own food, we go out for supplies, we’ve built things, but we don’t kidnap people, most find their way to us, or we manage to find people and rescue them. And if you don’t like it, you do have the choice to leave. Like me.”

“Why would you leave? That place sounds wonderful.”

“I had issues.”

“What kind?”

“Can we not talk anymore for tonight?” Brian just stared. “I’m tired and we have to start really early.”

“Yeah sure.”  Tom stomped out the fire putting them in pitch darkness, Tom’s night vision was ruined, he was apprehensive to sleep, but had his machete ready in his hand in case. He decided to keep watch for a bit, or just stay awake since he was too wound up to sleep. He lay still with his eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the night. He heard crickets, an owl, four legged creatures scampering in the woods. He was starting to drift off when everything went quiet. He sat up and tried to peer through the darkness. A stick snapped and echoed in the darkness, the noise seemed to ricochet through the night. Tom held his breath just listening. He could hear Brian’s heavy breathing, and the creatures of the night began to make noise again. He lay back down, still trying to reach out with his ears to hear anything, but he could only stay away so long.