The Complex: (The Reanimates) (25 page)

             
“Mom? You said I wasn't going to be allowed to have one of these last year.”

             
“I did.”

             
“I can have this? Even with the 3D? Cause you said no because it could mess with my eyes.”

             
“Yeah, I did. I got over it. You can have definitely have it.” My eyes filled up with tears a little. Things that I thought mattered like some study that linked using devices with 3D and vision deterioration just didn’t anymore. Living mattered. Finding joy wherever we can mattered. In the pre-zombie world we believed that tomorrow was right there. Now we didn't. We tried to set up for a tomorrow and we did what we could but we knew that tomorrow might change everything, that it might not even be there.

             
“Mom? Dad? You guys have to open what I made.” Jody had the kids make a wooden box with a lidded top that held a plaster hand print to hold pocket fodder at night. I adored it. I kept a couple little things on me all the time so it was certain to see a lot of use. Trent was the same way. I loved it.

             
Drew loved the truck that Trent built and Trent thought that clock I made for his workspace was fantastic. Trent had carved me a wooden turtle which I adored. I put it in the box that Drew made.

             
That Christmas was probably the best one that I ever had. I never wanted it to end. Best I could do is wrap up my memories and try to keep it in the box Drew made.

The Revelation

We all dreaded the day after Christmas. It was time to reveal what we learned to the council and come up with a plan on how to manage it. Tyreese had set up a presentation that showed Alexus stealing supplies and giving them to the marauders. We had clips set up of her on watch and waving the people through the blind spots. We had video of the marauders hanging out on our wall.

             
Trent called all the council people together and started the meeting.

             
“There were a couple of us who noticed some things going on that you all need to be aware of.” He began softly. “There are a lot of things on this presentation that you all need to be aware of. We decided that we needed to get a lot of proof that this was being done purposefully and not a misconceived mission of mercy to them. You know? I'm going to shut up and just play the thing.”

             
Projected on the wall were the clips of Alexus. Random gasps that it really was her taking everything spilled out. The biggest thing though that we had captured, that no one knew about, was a clip of her taking down one of the boards and kissing the speaker of the group.

             
It was clear that her loyalties were to them. She had been taking care of them with supplies meant to sustain the complex.

“
She has to go. Now.” Said Martha with clenched teeth. There were many murmurs in total agreement.

             
Mercedes added “Poor Daniel. He thought that his girl was on the up and up. Here she is kissing on this other guy and helping them. What are we going to say to him?”

             
“I don't know how to do this guys.” I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat. Everything was going to change right here and now and I just wanted to leave it alone. “We need to bring him in to decide what to do with her.”

             
Martha exclaimed loudly, “He's the reason we brought her in. I say we kick her out and he can stay or go!”

             
“Oh she is going, Martha. That’s not even debatable.” I said. “What we need to talk about is cluing Daniel in before we do this. You wouldn't want someone you know to be thrown out without a heads up, so we are going to at least warn him. It's fair and right and most of all its human. Ty? Will you go get him please?”

             
“No problem. I saw him go into build so I'll be right back.” Tyreese answered. He took off and came back in just minutes with Daniel.

             
Daniel looked like he was terrified, like he was going in front of the school board. We gave him a brief run down of the problem with Alexus. Tyreese had thought ahead and prepared an abbreviated version of the presentation for him. He got the point quickly.

             
“So Daniel? We are going to ask her to leave.” Trent said gently.

             
“Oh no you're not!” He said emphatically. “I'm going to kick her ass out of here. Screw her. She is not gonna steal food out of my baby's mouth to give a bunch of assholes. He wants to be with them so bad? Forget her. She can go.”

             
It was about the reaction I expected. “Daniel, I think we all need to do a united front on this. We need to call her in and tell her as a group.”

             
“Well, let's go get her then!” Daniel said. “I'll be right back.”

             
“Daniel, if you're going to get her you need to calm down, a lot. She needs to come in here like this is just a calm normal thing. And we want to do this in a calm logical manner. Otherwise I'm worried that something bad, well worse than this, will happen.” I said gently.

             
Daniel took a deep breath and said he can do this like it needs to be done. He left, shaking his hands out on the way over. He came back with her and closed the door. “Lex? You need to explain something to us, and like that line from the movie, you need to explain this like I'm a four year old.” He nodded to Tyreese who started the clips.

             
She started screeching. “You all been spying on me? Who the hell do you think you all are? Fucking spying? Got a bunch of hidden cameras on everyone? Fuck you all!”

             
“Alexus?” Tyreese stood up from the projector. “Your complex privileges have been revoked. You are not welcome here anymore. You may collect your things and leave. Now.”

             
Trent and I had gotten some of the extra things we had picked up in the camping store we hit when this all started and put it in a backpack. He pulled out the pack and handed it to her. “Here are some outdoor supplies for you. We hope that you do well.”

             
Alexus took the bag and screamed a stream of profanities.

             
“We will now escort you to your former unit and you may collect your clothing. You will not be taking any resources other than that was given in the backpack.” Joey added.

             
“Bitch? You have truly screwed the pooch on this. You are no longer a part of my family.” Daniel added.

             
Joey and Tyreese went with Daniel to take Alexus to get clothes. She grabbed a couple things and put it in a messenger bag. They walked her to the bridge as Jody lowered it from the car. She stomped across it as zombies that hadn't yet been burned tried to reach for her. When she was across the guys walked back over, motioned to Jody to raise the bridge and they locked the gate.

             
Joey then walked straight to the back of the complex and went behind the shed. “Hey y'all? Your meal ticket has been revoked. She is standing out front of the complex right now. Your enjoyment of our supplies is over.”

             
A pair of flashing green eyes on a dirty face appeared in the separation of wood chunks. “What? You kicked Alexus out? Remember when I said to you all that you gonna rue the day? That day is coming, and coming fast.” A fist struck the wood hard. “Remember now we know your security style and holes. You all better be hoping that wall is as strong as you think it is. Cause my money is on it being nowhere close. You'll recall the one way ticket to the, what was it you all were saying? The rainbow bridge? Yeah, that was what you all said when I killed that stupid looking, worthless dog. You never even knew I came in to feed the pest arsenic. Kills rats and ratty looking dogs. We are gonna be hitting you all when you don't even see it coming. Rue, motherfuckers. Rue.” He laughed a taunting laugh.

             
We heard the shuffling of belongings being gathered by several people and several empty cans of food were thrown over the wall. A voice called out, “Yo thanks for the eats.” I had never heard that voice before.

             
Trent looked through the crack and said that they had left.

And Rue We Will

             
He said that we would rue the day and that we would rue it soon. There was something about the look in those green eyes that put fear deep in my soul. He had always looked unhinged. That was something that every one of us felt since the first day he crossed our path. Those eyes through the separated boards told us that he was more than unhinged. He was dangerous and every one of us felt it.

             
Zombies are easy to deal with when it came time to deal with them. They had a one track mind that focused on eating. They couldn't apply strategic moves to their actions. Hell, they wouldn’t even notice a trench right in front of them. We had zombie management in the bag almost since day one. The only thing that had surprised us in zombie security, really, was how they could be very tenacious. They made the gate move when enough of them pushed on it, for example. We could deal with that. What were we going to do with the thinking type of threat?

             
I looked at Joey who was slowly taking in our complex wall. He looked at our buildings. He was studying every detail he could take in and I could see that he was not liking what he saw.

             
“We need a plan. We have to come up with something because I have no clue what their resources are. I don't know if they have a ton of guns or what. He is totally right, they have been watching us for months and with Alexus giving out all our details who knows what he has put together.”

             
I took a deep breath and started my suggestion on all this. “We need a safe place to put the kids if this comes to a fight. We....”

             
Tyreese cut me off. “No, Cali, we are not talking about this in the open. We got used to being able to and we need to get out of the habit like now.” I agreed. I felt kind of stupid for having started the talk like that. I had no idea if they were in earshot. Tyreese suggested we go to the school.

             
When we collected inside Tyreese said, “Alright Cali. You were saying something about the kids. Go on.”

             
“Yeah. Well what I was thinking was about building a safe zone. It needs to not have any resources in it other than whatever they would need for a day's survival. We need to reinforce it with anything we can find, secure the windows and stuff and create an extra lock on it. We should use the unit next to the school. Its farther away from the food and water units which will probably be a main hit point.” I took a breath offered another suggestion. “We should have Martha, Mercedes, and Jody manage the unit. They'll need the protection as well.”

             
Martha looked at me with indignation. “So you think that just cause we're old we need to be kept in a box? What if I didn't want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of kids like I was a child myself? What if I'd rather die on my feet shooting than playing the role of Anne Frank?”

             
“Is that what you want to do? Do you want to be out there with a gun killing people Martha? Cause that’s what we are probably going to have to be doing. Actual people. Not a wad of zombies. Are you ready for something like that?” Joey asked her, incredibly irritated with her. I was annoyed right along with him. Why did she always have to be so damned difficult all the time? If we said one thing she always argued to do the other.

             
“Frankly? Yes. I want to make a difference in this. I don’t want to play the nanny role, I want to take the bastards out. If it is a fight to the death I want to fight.” Martha said, clearly having made up her mind in this. I looked at her to try to discern whether or not she was seriously saying this. The lines on her face were set in absolute determination.

             
“Martha, if that’s what you want to do, whatever. That’s fine.” I said.

             
Joey started to pace. He looked like he was thinking hard about something. “Does anyone have a marker?”

             
Jody replied, “There is one in the bathroom. I used the mirrors as a dry erase board for the kids.”

             
He grinned at her. “Great minds think alike. That’s just what I want to do.” We went into the master bedroom where the vanity was. There was a large mirror over the sink where we could all see. Mercedes closed the blinds just in case they had eyes on us. Joey wiped off the previous writing, uncapped the marker, and started to draw four boxes in a pattern like the complex was arranged. He put letters in front of the boxes. F for food and W for water was drawn on the outside of one box, corresponding to the unit that held food and water. In front of the next he put a P for the paper goods. The next had a B for build and an M for medical and the last had an S for the school.