The Swamp (22 page)

             
“Rebecca, he wasn’t a person. No more than these dead things are. They were once, but they gave all that up when they started setting traps to kill and eat people. People don’t act like that, they thought they were animals, and in a way, that’s what they became.” Sam said candidly.

             
“Do you really think so?” She asked after thinking for a few seconds.

             
“I do.” Sam said, “I was a peaceful man all my life, but in the last few months, I can’t even guess how many I have killed. The world is a different place now. There are basically two kinds of people, those that hold on to that spark of humanity in all of us, and those others, the soldiers, the crazies and those like them that smother it. None of them would feel bad about killing you. The fact that you do means you are a good person. Trust me I have thought about this a lot.” Sam had spent hours in the cage thinking about the people he killed, he knew what she was going through.

             
They stood in silence and watched the river flow by. The birds sang in the trees and occasionally a fish would jump. It was a beautiful scene.

             
“I think you are right.” She finally said, and surprised him by taking off her shirt and starting towards the water.

             
“Where are you going?” he asked, following her.

             
“I need a bath, come join me.” She said and gave him a coy smile.

             
The water was cool and refreshing against the heat of the day. The helped each other wash, and then lay on the shore to dry naked in the sun. He was again taken aback by the perfectness of her curves and the way the sun made her skin glow. Overcome by desire he drew her in and kissed her.

             
When they were again satisfied, Rebecca turned to Sam, “What is your family going to say about me?”

             
“What do you mean?” he asked and immediately felt obtuse.

             
“Will they like me? Will they compare me to Annie? Will they blame me and hate me for trying to take her place?” she asked in rapid fire.

             
“They will love you, just like I do.” Sam said before adding, “And there may be an adjustment period, but they will understand. With the way things are now and all.”

             
“I just worry, is all, maybe it’s the past few days, with the lack of sleep and food,” she said, “but I just don’t want to come between you and them.”

             
“No worries about it, what happens will happen. You are a wonderful woman, I do not doubt for a minute that they will accept you,” He assured her, “and you will not come between us, we have all been through too much these last few months.”

             
She seemed to feel better, but he could tell that she still had doubts about meeting his family, and if he was honest with himself, so did he.

             
An hour later, they were back in the vehicle. They had found combat fatigues in a soldier’s duffle in the back. They fit both of them loosely, but they enjoyed the clean clothes.

             
They made it to the entrance to the swamp right at sundown. The long road in felt longer than usual as his excitement grew. He was finally almost home. He had convinced himself they would not make it so many times that it felt surreal when they rounded a bend, and saw the tower.

             
He could see a light burning at the top, and he was reminded of a lighthouse drawing him in. They pulled up to the gate, and the headlights revealed a lot of changes since he had last been there. Along the inside of the entire length of the fence, He saw RV’s and camper trailers had been brought in, and in most lights burned. Outside the fence set a variety of vehicles, trucks, cars and vans lined the driveway, and he had to drive carefully to get to the gate.

             
Someone had obviously seen them coming, because his brother stood in front of the gate, armed with a wicked looking shotgun. “Hold it right there!” he yelled and leveled the weapon at the cab of the vehicle, “We have you covered and heavily outnumbered!” he continued.

             
Sam leaned out the window and yelled back, “Yeah, but I’ve seen you shoot, I am safe as long as you are aiming at me.”

             
In the headlights, Mark looked confused for a second, and then his face broke out in a smile.               “It’s Sam!” He yelled to no one in particular, and several people appeared out of the darkness around us.

             
Sam stepped from the vehicle and beamed at Mark. He heard footsteps rushing towards him, and turned to see Mom coming up on him fast. She reached him and wrapped her arms around him. Mark joined them, and with that, they were together again. They held on for a long time. It was several minutes until they could bring themselves to let go. He noticed that Rebecca had gotten out and stepped around to stand beside him.

             
“Mom, this is Rebecca.” He said by way of introduction, “Rebecca, this is Mark, My brother.”

             
“Very nice to meet you.” said his mother and gave him a questioning glance.

              Mark took he hand and shook, “welcome to the swamp.” He said and turned to Sam. “What happened to Mike and Ted,” he asked, but was able to get his answer from the expression Sam gave him.

             
Sam turned and searched the faces in the crowd. He had met most of them, but he noted a few new faces as well. He scanned through the people one by one until he found the one he was looking for.

             
Laurie stood at the edge of the crowd, an expectant look on her face. Sam thought to himself about how much she had changed in just the short time since he had last seen here.  Her face had filled out and her formerly gaunt features were almost stunningly beautiful, and he saw she was smiling.

             
Sam could tell by the way she looked passed him that she was watching for someone else to get out of the car. He walked towards her, and she focused her attention to him, and seeing something in his demeanor, her smile vanished.

             
“Laurie,” he began, “Ted didn’t make it. We got captured by that bunch of people, and they killed him.” Sam didn’t feel the need to go into the particulars. This girl could spend the rest of her life not knowing her brother had been eaten by psychopaths as far as he was concerned.

             
She put her hands to her face, and violent sobbing escaped her lips. She let loose a cry of anguish, and her legs just suddenly seemed to fail her. She seemed to be in a state of shock as his mother and Rebecca reached her.

             
He past training kicked in, and he said, “I am very sorry for your loss.” He instantly felt like an idiot for dragging out that tired morticians line.               The women helped her to her feet and led her away, to the house. The crowd around them had already begun to break apart, by the time he walked through the gate. It was just Mark, Paul and himself.

             
“Mark,” Paul said, “I will take the rest of your watch at the gate, go have a drink with your brother.” Mark gave Paul a sincere ‘thank you’, and led Sam towards one of the Parked trailers that sat along the back fence.

             
“Come on Sam, I have a bottle of whiskey someone left wrapped up in the shed, and I have been saving it for just such an occasion.” Mark told him.

             
“I thought for sure that would be gone by now.” Sam answered, but he was touched that his brother had waited.

             
“We have been way to busy.” Mark said, “whoever lived here before didn’t do much to spruce the place up, and it was pretty run down when I took it over.” Mark chided.

             
“You guys have made a few changes.” Sam remarked.

             
“We have had to,” Mark said as they walked, “we have almost twenty five people here now. We had to bring in these RVs to house them all, we will have to go get a couple more now that you are back. We have to baby them down the road to get in here, but they are far more comfortable than tents or barns.”

             
They reached the vehicle that Sam had to assume was Mark’s home and stepped inside. The small living space was well organized and compact, but he could see that Mark had made himself at home. He encouraged Sam to sit at the table while he rummaged through the cabinets.

             
“Is mom staying in the house?” Sam asked, “and where is Ken, I didn’t see him out there.”

             
Mark had produced two glasses and the bottle of whiskey. He gave Sam a knowing smile in response to his question. “Ken has moved into the top of the tower, but Paul makes him come down for meals, He seems like a nice enough guys, once you get to know him. Mom sure thinks so, she checks on him often, sometimes I hear her going up the steps to the top very late at night.” Mark poured the whiskey into the glasses.

             
“I thought they were making goo-goo eyes at each other before I left, so they are a couple now? Should I call him daddy?” Sam asked and they had a laugh over the thought.

             
They lifted their glasses in a salute and took a sip. The whiskey burned its way down his parched throat and made him cough.

             
“Actually all Mom will say is that they are ‘just friends’. Mark said pouring another round. “And what about this girl you came in with, you two ‘just friends’?”

             
“It’s complicated,” Sam replied, but didn’t say more, and Mark decided not to push the matter. After that had hung in the air for a few moments, Sam changed the subject. “How did you guys get back?”

             
“Man, we were back here by noon the next day.” Mark said. “We all ran off that night and I saw them start out of the woods after us, but then you guys opened up from the Fleetwood and it seemed like all hell broke loose.” Mark went on, “We ran and ran, We really had to push some of them to keep going. When we couldn’t run anymore, we just kept walking. I figured we just had to keep moving. Around sun up, we found an old county fire station that looked empty and hid in there for awhile.”

             
“So they never found you, the crazies I mean?” Sam asked.

             
“No, we had a few come up behind us half a mile from where we started, but we took care of them and never heard anything else. I guess they where to busy with you guys.” He said, “After we had rested for a little while, we started walking again, and fifteen minutes later a school bus pulled up, driven by the Morgan’s, you will meet them later, a very nice older couple who had come down from Georgia looking for somewhere safe. They picked us up and we came straight here.”

             
Sam was amazed at how easy the journey seemed compared to his own to cover the same distance. “We didn’t have it quite that easy, but I am happy to hear it. I had worried about what might be happening to you guys since we were having such trouble.” Sam finished his drink, and Mark refilled it and his own.

             
“So, about your trip, what weren’t you telling Laurie about Ted? And what happened to Mike?” Mark asked.

             
“What do you mean?” Sam asked, but knew Mark had seen that something was going unsaid.               That was one of the troubles with siblings; they knew you almost as well as you knew yourself. Sam sighed, and laid the whole tale out to Mark, who kept both glasses full as he went on.

             
When he had finished, He and Mark sat in silence for a long time, Sam thinking about the events of the last few weeks, and Mark absorbing them.

             
“Sounds like you did what you had to do.” Mark remarked, and Sam felt a flood of relief at his brother’s words. He had the same doubts about his humanity, or what was left of it as Rebecca had back at the park. Like her, he had needed to someone to tell him he had done right.

             
“You know it’s going to take mom some time to get used to the Rebecca idea.” Mark said finally.

             
“It will take me some time as well.” Sam confessed.

              The set in the RV and talked until the bottle was gone. Sam stood to leave, and was suddenly hit by the combination of alcohol, lack of sleep and the small amount of food he had eaten. He swayed a little, and turned to Mark. “Where is the latrine now days?”

             
He stepped outside into the cooling night air. The Florida winter was approaching, and the night was only in the sixties. He made his way to the area Mark had directed him, and on the way back saw Rebecca step out of the house. She stopped on the little concrete pad that was considered a porch and looked up at the sky.

             
He walked over to her. “How is Laurie?” he asked, trying not to slur his words.

             
“She is devastated, but your Mom gave her a shot and she has finally calmed down enough to get some sleep. We talked to her for awhile, that poor girl has been through hell the last few months, did you know she had to take out both her parents after they were infected? Her brother was all she had left in the world, It’s all very sad.” She explained, her voice sounded emotionally drained.