Barren Fields (19 page)

“I guess I just don’t care anymore. You see what’s happening to Jack and George. We’re going to be that way too. Maybe in a few months, maybe a year.”

“If you don’t give a shit. Next time tell me before I take you on land with me. I’m relying on you to survive this trip.”

“Against what? There’s nothing in here.”

“But you didn’t know that. The whole damn town could have been packed behind that door when you opened it up. If you want to die, you have a gun in your hands to make it happen. Don’t try getting the rest of us killed in your bid to be free of worry.”

“Hey Keith?” Thomas calls from the door. “I need your backpack. I’m loading us up on bandages and pain meds just in case.”

“Did you find the other stuff yet?” he asks walking back in.

“No, but I did find something to take your minds off that little lover’s quarrel you just had.”

“Screw you, Thomas.”

“Keith’s right, Frank. You’re putting us all in danger if you act like that. Anyway, close the door and listen to this while I find the other meds. You grandpas were probably in college when this came out.”

“Oh, that’s good stuff.
Peter Frampton
, “Show me the way.” A little off on your timeframe for me,” Keith says. “1975. I was living the life and just got out of the Army. Good times.”

“I don’t know how old you think I am, but I was in high school when this came out. It’s a great song, though. I went to a lot of parties that year.”

“Jackpot. I found the medicine, but they only have six bottles.”

“Let’s just grab it. I’m taking this player and the discs with us too. I could probably check every digital player between here and Oregon and not find these songs again.”

Frank slowly opens the door and looks out.

“See, I can learn.”

“Great. Let’s get back,” Thomas says. “Being on solid ground is messing with me. Everything feels like it’s rocking.”

The bright sun makes them squint slightly but only for a second. The salt processing facility is still deserted. Keith, Frank, and Thomas hum and mumble different parts of the song they just heard as they walk back to the dock.

The men are three steps from walking around the building closest to the dock when they hear a gunshot. Keith ducks, but Thomas takes two quick strides around the side while raising his gun to see what’s happening at the boat. Bullets rip through him and bounce off of the wall he stepped around.

If Thomas didn’t die from the initial hits, the subsequent bullets do the job. Whoever is firing by the boat keeps shooting at Thomas and the wall, making Frank and Keith stay where they are. When the shooting stops they hear someone yelling in Spanish, and then another gunshot followed by Ellen screaming.

“They must have shot Carl. What do we do?”

“Let me take another look”

Keith crawls back to the edge getting ready to take a quick look and pull his head back.

*

From inside the cabin, Jack hears new voices speaking in Spanish.
I’m still dreaming
, he thinks to himself and drifts back out. His last two days have been filled with vague dreams. The headaches from the radiation sickness are gone now or the medicine is keeping them away, but he has been getting disoriented. That damn book of George’s said it was a possible side effect. Too bad it didn’t say anything about staying away from metal.

Jack’s eyes flash open.
What was that? I know I heard something this time.
He slowly rolls onto the floor. When more gunshots ring just outside of the cabin, he grabs the rifle from the table. He is able to take one step without holding on, but then falls flat on his face. The shooting outside continues.

Jack struggles to get back up and hears more yelling. He pulls on the knob to get out but the nausea returns causing him to vomit. He spits on the floor, takes three deep breaths and slaps himself hard in the face to reorient where he is.
Take the gun off safe
, he thinks.

Another shot rings out, and Ellen begins screaming. Grasping the door handle, Jack opens the door to the blinding light, raises his gun, and shoots a figure standing in front of him. The strange man’s face opens up, and the body starts falling back. Jack steps out of the cabin holding on to the trigger and turning the barrel to face each new attacker he sees until his gun is empty five seconds later. He doesn’t have the strength to move farther and falls to the deck.

*

“That’s full auto!” Keith says and looks around the building’s edge.

Keith watches Jack turning with his gun. One man next to him is already falling and another gets shot as his rotation continues.

Ellen has a gun and kills two men at the bow of the boat in front of her.

Jack finishes his turn, and his remaining bullets empty into the last two bodies standing on the deck. They fly into Ellen’s back and a man that is wrestling with her for the gun. Both people fall and Keith turns his gaze to the ground wishing to erase the image of what just happened.

Frank steps around the corner and quickly scans the surrounding area before stepping over to check on Thomas.

“Thomas is dead. Let’s get up to the boat.”

Frank runs up behind Keith, scanning the area around and behind them as they go.

The body of one attacker is hanging over the railing at a contorted angle with his foot stuck somewhere on the deck. The rest of the boat looks like a slaughterhouse floor.

Keith checks Ellen first. She is face down next to her husband, with six entry wounds across her back. Her body is still. Carl has a bullet wound to his head.

George is lying face down between the two men Ellen shot. He has blood on him but it must be theirs, there are no entry wounds that Keith can see. He turns him over and sees a large welt on George’s forehead. His chest is still heaving.

“Jack is alive but too weak to move. How are the others?” Frank yells.

“Carl and Ellen are dead. George is just knocked out.”

Keith looks back to Thomas’ body and beyond him to the road that leads to the other town.

“Frank, make sure these bastards are all dead. I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you...” Frank looks at the road. The infected are starting to appear and walk to the dock. “You can’t make it in time!” Frank yells after Keith as he runs.

Keith reaches Thomas’ body and starts dragging him away from the approaching group of infected. He is pulling with all his strength but is still moving slower than the crowd seeking his flesh. He rolls Thomas onto his stomach, pulls off the backpack, and continues dragging the body to the boat.

Frank walks past Keith and starts shooting into the crowd. Heads, necks, and torsos pop open with red. The bodies in the front of the pack fall, allowing Frank to grab the backpack before turning to help Keith get Thomas’ body back to the dock. Together they load Thomas’ body and jump back to the dock to untie the boat and make their escape.

Frank starts the engine and steers them slowly away from the island. Keith walks over to the edge to free the leg of the dangling body, while Franks slows the boat and shuts off the engine. The body splashes into the water, and the anchor follows a second later.

Frank pulls the body Jack killed at the door to the side and raises him over the lifeline to drop him into the water as well.

“Not a good time to go swimming,” Frank tells Keith and points into the water.

Several sharks are swimming around the craft.

“The dock is filling up as well,” he replies, and they watch the growing crowd of infected walking toward the buildings at the end of the structure.

“They aren’t watching us. Do you think someone is down there?”

“That’s where these men were probably hiding. If someone is in there they’ll get what they deserve,” Keith says using an evil tone of revenge before dropping another body over the side to feed the sharks.

Frank grabs the body of the man that was shot next to Ellen and lifts him over the side, slightly sickened at the sight of more fins appearing from the depths.

The next body Keith grabs lets out a moan, so he steps back.

“Frank, this one is alive.”

Frank walks over and raises his gun at the man, but Keith pushes it away.

“Wait. Help me turn him over.”

They turn him on his back, and the pain from the movement makes him open his eyes wide. This one has been shot in the stomach. He says something in Spanish in a pleading tone.

“
N
o hablo español
,” they both reply.

“Bring the last body here, Frank.”

Keith stands the man up and makes him look at the sharks consuming his friends in the water below. Frank drops the last man into the ocean, and a shark promptly grabs one of the legs and drags it under the water while shaking its head from side to side.

The man starts speaking rapidly, and then screams when Keith pushes him over the side. He isn’t able to scream for long. There are too many sharks, and they’ve worked themselves into quite a frenzy with all the blood and free meat being thrown to them.

“We’ll bury the others when we make it deeper into the ocean. They deserve better than what these scum received.”

The wind feels good, so Frank gets the sails ready while Keith brings up the anchor.

Once the wind begins carrying them away a woman’s scream carries over the waters, and they look back to the dock. The infected finally flushed the remaining bandits from their hideout. The two people run to the end of the structure and jump into the water. They try swimming toward the retreating sailboat.

“Should I turn around?” Frank asks.

“There’s no point,” is the answer followed by his finger tipped arm pointing to several fins converging on the fear-filled bathers.

Chapter 16

Freed from the Keeper

Oregon.

Present Day.

Timothy and the group in his SUV fared better in our reconnaissance to the edge of Grants Pass. One infected was able to jump on their hood, before they threw their vehicle in reverse, but it wasn’t able to grab hold and just slid off when they moved. Two more that moved into the road behind them after they passed were plowed down by their SUV in its escape.

Timothy only reversed a short way down the road and killed his headlights to watch as the infected in the area all converged on my slower moving truck attempting to turn around. They lost sight of us as soon as the front end of our truck was damaged ramming into the infected, but they heard my truck moving until it crashed and then listened to our continued gunfire which only stopped when we were safely on the roof.

“Eddie, Simone, are you there? Eddie, Simone?” Dianne tries reaching us on the radio but we no longer have ours and can’t respond.

“Try flashing the headlights,” Jeremy calls from the back.

“If I do, too many infected will see us, and we’ll have to leave right away. I’ll try my flashlight first. Two of you get out with me and cover my side and rear so I can flash in the direction they crashed.”

“No way are we getting out! You can use your light from inside the cab,” Diane yells at Tim while slapping his arm. “We can’t see a thing out there, so if you put one foot out that door we’ll all probably be dead.”

“You’re right. I’m not thinking straight,” he says and starts flashing the light in Morse code in the general direction we should be.

The inside of the SUV shines like an intermittent lighthouse each time the beam is lit and it works to safely guide the infected to the vehicle Tim and the others are in. Two infected hit their truck shortly after the light message begins. Those two are shot and killed, but everyone knows there will be others.

“How long are we going to stay here Timothy?” Jeremy asks. “We could get surrounded just like—”

“There!” Dianne yells and points out of habit in the dark interior.

“I see it,” says Tim. “They’re burning something and waving it. Let me just send another quick message and we’ll get out of here.”

Three more infected hit the truck while Tim is sending the final message. The group inside can barely hear and are seeing spots from the reports and flashes of the gunfire in the cab. Tim is especially night blinded from the reflection of the flashlight off the windshield in front of him and has to turn on the headlights in order to drive them out of danger and back home.

Once the headlights come on, the same scene of horror from earlier reaches them. Infected are all over the road, and some are already approaching the SUV in response to the gunshots and lights. If Tim and the others were able to stay a minute longer they would have heard the two shots reaching out from the city and the impromptu gunshot conversation that occurs, but the spread out group of infected on the road all run at the truck when the lights come on. They have to leave quickly if they want to escape.

*

Everyone is silent on the drive down the interstate. Successfully making it away from Grants Pass put them all on heightened alert. Knowing that they still have to drive through Rogue River is a threat that increases everyone’s tension as each mile disappears behind the vehicle. There is no sign of the horses or cattle that had been on the road when they passed earlier. They slow down and several flashlight beams shoot out from each side of the SUV’s windows as they drive through the spot, but nothing is seen.

“We’re almost at the turnoff,” Timothy says. “Make sure your guns are ready and roll your windows down.”

There is a comfort in having the windows up in a vehicle. As fragile as they are, it is still a welcome barrier to the world outside. That feeling of safety is just an illusion that can lead to deadly consequences, if trying to take aim at an attacker with a face full of glass fragments. That point is made perfectly clear as they drive back into Rogue River and a runner hits the right side of the vehicle while carrying a rock. Its hand with the rock bounces off the window frame by Megan’s face, saving her a glass shower that evening. Tim is able to keep the vehicle at a speed that prevents any of the runners in the area from making a significant obstacle or grabbing on to the SUV somewhere.

Rogue River doesn’t have the numbers of the infected that Grants Pass does. The town wouldn’t have any if Eddie’s group decided to clear the place out. It is a small enough town that they could have killed all of those that aren’t stuck in buildings in a day or two. It was decided not to kill them off because anyone wanting to get to the ranch by road has to go through Rogue River, and the infected are considered an initial line of defense. No one can set up shop in the town to shoot at or otherwise harass the regular traffic from the ranch that comes through here.

The rest of the drive home is quiet, and the release of tension can be observed in the slumping shoulders and rolling heads of relaxing muscles. Tim calls ahead to the ranch from a mile out, and the gate opens for them as they drive up. Behind the guards at the gate’s entrance is what seems like every other survivor living on the land; Isaac’s people, the Stick People, and the original ranch members as well. There is some well-deserved confusion when only one vehicle returns and Simone and Eddie aren’t with Tim as his group gets out of the SUV.

The people of the ranch had started to think that they were invincible or at least Eddie and his wife were. Nothing bad ever seemed to happen to them that they couldn’t overcome, and most of the people gathered were expecting to welcome back not only the search team but the members of the missing crew that everyone went out for.

“Where are Eddie and Simone?” Arthur asks as the murmurs of speculation in the crowd start to grow.

“They are alive but trapped on a rooftop by the on-ramp into Grants Pass,” Dianne tells Arthur loudly enough for the assembled crowd to hear.

The floodgate of questions is opened up, and everyone asks at once:

“Are they okay?”

“Where’s the missing team?”

“What happened?”

Tim puts his hands up in a pushing motion to stop the crowd from talking. “I’ll give you the basics of what we know right now and fill in the details to whoever wants them at the fire pit.”

A fire pit was set up for people to gather around when important community messages were shared. There weren’t any buildings that had the space for everyone to gather. Even the riding stable was filled up with partitioned living spaces instead of being an open area until enough camping trailers and RVs can be brought up for people to live in.

“We almost made it to the on-ramp into Grants Pass when we were surrounded by runners. I’m guessing the sound of our approaching vehicles drew them to us. I was able to back out quickly, but there were already about a dozen runners between our SUV and Eddie’s truck. They tried to turn around and ram their way through to us, but they hit too many runners.”

“After that, we heard more then saw them crash into something and then shoot their way to safety on top of a building. I don’t know if one or both of them made it or if they are injured. They must have lost their radio, because we couldn’t contact them on ours. We only know someone is alive because they lit something on fire and waved it to us after we shined a message with our flashlight.”

“What about the missing group?” Isaac asks.

“We didn’t pick up any radio messages, and we were calling regularly right up until we were surrounded.”

The larger group starts to disperse. Most of the Stick People and Isaac’s people leave but all of the ranch people stay. Along with Isaac, Jeremiah and their sister Mariah, Gayle stays to find out about her missing husband and son. A man named Jordan, whose brother, Aaron, is also with the missing crew, stays as well.

From the Stick People, Dave Cromwell and Sheila Jackson stay. These two spend most of their time around Jeremiah and Isaac or their people. Dave particularly understands how precarious his position is and only credits his survival to the arrival of Isaac’s group. He isn’t aware that Eddie had initially planned on killing him and the other’s that weren’t welcome, but understood that he wouldn’t have survived anyway if they had been left behind. 

“So what’s the plan?” Arthur asks.

“We put a huge group together and go after them in the morning,” Donald says.

“We shouldn’t go after them,” Jeremiah says to everyone’s not so astonished looks.

Jeremiah is still bruised by the fact that he lost a group of men when he didn’t take Eddie’s advice. In fact, he is upset over every experience he has had with Eddie and his family, from needing to live at the ranch, to being insulted by the Atheist regularly whenever he expresses gratitude to the Lord. The worst part of the Keeper family is that they have everyone fooled as to the true evil they represent.

Jeremiah knows this isn’t a disease but the devil’s work and Eddie is evil to the bone. He is using food and shelter to buy people’s loyalty. Eddie is evil and his helpful attitude and smiling demeanor are only there to pull people away from God and into the arms of Satan himself. That part he is sure of, but he can’t get all of the others to accept it, not even his own brother Isaac. He has had some success with the people that survived the winter with him and some of the Stick People understand as well.

Mike is the one that Jeremiah appreciates the most. Eddie killed Mike’s father, so Mike knows exactly what Eddie is capable of and what is truly in his heart. According to Jeremiah, that is why Mike asked Isaac to be able to stay with their group. Mike needed to be away from Eddie or he thought he would be killed next.

Jeremiah continues talking in the face of the surprised and angry looks that they shouldn’t return to Grants Pass for a rescue.

“Eddie told me how dangerous it was going out there. I didn’t listen and it cost my men their lives. Even tonight Eddie said no one should go but went along because he knew no one would listen, and what happened to him? Maybe they were alive when you left, or maybe they weren’t. If Simone or Eddie did signal by burning something, how do you know they weren’t warning you to stay away and not return?”

Isaac grabs Jeremiah’s arm and shakes his head
no.
Even Isaac can see Jeremiah is more interested in Eddie not returning than in protecting anyone at the ranch from possible danger.

Jordan steps out away from Jeremiah and stands by Donald.

“I don’t care if it costs me my life. My brother is out there, and I’m going to find out what happened to him.”

Then Gayle, who was too frightened to go earlier, says she will head out with them as well. In fact, aside from Jeremiah and a few of the older survivors that wouldn’t be able to help, all of the remaining people expressed a desire to go on the rescue.

For many of them, Eddie and Simone have become the glue that keeps the place held together. The Keepers have become a landmark that reminds people that they are home and safe. Even though it is an illusion, in a world where everyone has lost something or someone, there is a strange comfort in being associated with someone that has lost nothing. The Keepers are survivors and everyone wants that luck to rub off on them.

“Spread the word to everyone else that if they want to go on the rescue in the morning, they should be ready to go at first light,” Donald says and the group begins to break up.

“I think we’ll have to turn a lot of people away in the morning,” Arthur says.

Donald smiles while they walk, and responds, “That’s your job, Arthur.”

Arthur stops in his tracks. “And who put you in charge?” Arthur calls out in a mock annoyance.

“I’m not in charge, Arthur, you are. That’s why you have to decide who gets to go. I just feel bad for the poor slobs you tell aren’t going.”

Moving again to catch up with Donald, Arthur figures he should start his work now.

“If you want to feel bad for someone, feel bad for yourself. You aren’t going either.”

“Hey, wait a minute. I wasn’t trying to be mean, so you shouldn’t take it out on me.”

“I’m not. You and your wife are taking care of Eddie’s children while they’re gone. That’s what you have always done when they’ve gone away together, and I know they trust you to care for their kids if something happened to them. There are people here like Jeremiah that want to see Eddie and Simone fail, even if it brings the rest of us down as well. You have to watch their kids and make some plans in case they don’t return.”

This time Donald stops walking and gets lost in thought as Arthur heads back into the house.

*

“What the hell are you thinking?” Isaac asks Jeremiah. “Eddie and his people have taken us in.”

“Damn it, Isaac. Eddie is evil. Why can’t you see that? He’s pulling people in with kindness and spreading his sickness of doubt and disbelief in God. He is evil! And it looks like he’s pulled you in as well.”

“I haven’t lost my faith in God. I just don’t believe this sickness is caused by demons. It is evil but it is the evil of man that made this sickness. If it were demons then Mariah would have been lost as well, but some people are immune, just like Eddie and his group have explained.”