Barren Fields (26 page)

“I don’t care. Sorry, Mr. Johnson. I’m not leaving. I’m going to hear what Mike has to say.”

“I should let you go, Eddie.”

“Actually Isaac, I think you should stay for this. It might be in both of our interest to hear what he has to say.”

There is a knock on the front door before Mike lets himself in and looks around the first floor for somebody.

“If you’re looking for one of us Mike, we’re in here,” I call

“Mr. Keeper,” he starts speaking, but sees Hannah and Isaac and pauses.

“It’s okay, Mike. Tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s starting. Jeremiah is going to challenge you. He’s with Dave and Sheila right now, and he’s getting ready. He wants to confront you today. Dave said they should wait until tomorrow, but Jeremiah said
no
. He’s going to find you in two hours.”

“Is he getting ready to fight?”

“Yes. He says he will challenge you in a way that will make everyone see you for the demon you are, and you will have no one to back you up when he’s done.”

“Do you know why is he taking two hours to do it?”

“It’s a ritual,” Isaac offers. “He will pray for guidance first, and then dress himself in all white to signify purity for the confrontation. It is what we would do when confronting alcoholics or drug users in our parish.”

“Isaac, I suggest you get everyone you care about and trust off the ranch right now. If you think they have any loyalty to your brother, then leave them behind.”

“You’re kicking me out?”

“I’m sending you next door to the farm. I’m trying to save your life. My people will not know which of your people can be trusted, only you know that.”

“You can’t kill them all, Eddie! There are good people that he is just controlling. They’re my people and some of them are just kids.”

“Good people don’t threaten to kill my family over imaginary
sky friends
, Isaac. And I would think twice about informing everyone in your group. Jeremiah has a strong hold over his followers and you would be considered the worst type of traitor there is to fanatics like them. You are working with me and will be a blood traitor to most of them. It isn’t just my life on the line now that this has escalated.”

Isaac looks at me with turmoil on his face.

“Why did you warn me about your brother that first day?”

He pauses before replying, not wanting to face the truth of his own words. “Because I knew he was a danger to others, and your group specifically. I will have Mariah speak with him quickly while I prepare my people to leave.”

“You should try arranging a prayer group before you go,” I say flatly.

“Why would you make jokes about my religion when people are going to die?”

I look back at him a bit confused, and say, “I’m not trying to ridicule you, although Jeremiah wouldn’t have convinced a bunch of Atheists that I am a demon. What I meant was, throw together a quick prayer group for the children in your group and get them out of here as well. Take all of the kids to the farm with you and make sure they survive. I bet most of their parents would be happy to get them out of danger. They probably think I’ll sprout wings and spit fire at them all when I’m confronted.”

Isaac nods, and then walks slowly out of the room with his head slightly down. We hear the door close as he leaves the house.

“What should I do, Mr. Keeper?” Mike asks.

“You should probably stay here now. Hannah, I’m sorry I lied to you about Mike being on Jeremiah’s side, but it was for his protection. His loyalty could have been questioned if he kept spending so much time over here with you. I sent him to live with Isaac’s group the first day they arrived. It wasn’t Mike’s choice or idea.”

“What?” Hannah says in a confused tone.

“I sent Mike to keep tabs on Jeremiah for me, so I would know when something like this happens or when he decides to attack. Because I am responsible for the death of Mike’s father, the hatred that everyone expected him to have for me was a perfect cover for him to gain Jeremiah’s trust. They didn’t know about the issues Mike had with his father, mostly regarding Mike’s mother’s death, that helped him forgive me for what I did. Mike will have to explain the rest to you. Your mom and I have to get everyone ready.”

“How did you know you could trust him? How do we know we can trust him now?” Simone asks in defiant concern.

“I’ve seen how he looks at Hannah. It’s the same way I look at you and the kids. He’s not going to let her get hurt. Hannah, get your brothers and sisters ready to leave. You’re going to stay with Greg and Jessica for a while. Mike, you should go with her.”

Simone looks at me and shakes her head before we both leave the house in search of Arthur.

*

“Ashley, I need you to load all of the animals you can into that semi-trailer,” I say pointing to an empty trailer next to the one Donald and his son are loading for tomorrow.

“I should wait until morning to load the animals. I don’t want them locked up in there all night.”

“The trucks will be leaving soon, possibly right after you finish loading the animals.”

She looks at me with pain and anger in her eyes.

“My sister died trying to take care of this place and our group. I can’t believe you’re letting them make us run. What happened to you?”

“What happened to me?”

“Yes, what happened to you?” she says it slower in a derogatory way as if I was having trouble understanding her. “You killed the men that sent the infected after us and didn’t blink with the things you did. After we were overrun, everyone was ready to give up and leave, but you kept pushing and kept working, so we did as well. Even with Stockton, you walked right up to the man knowing that he had fifty people behind him and made him give up without losing anyone on our side. But I look at you now and I see fear and uncertainty. You look weak.”

“Weak?” I say in a frustrated tone.

She steps back knowing she is crossing a line with me she hasn’t done before, but she is too upset to stop.

“Yes. You are being weak and a disappointment. The man I knew as
Eddie Keeper
didn’t care about dying if what he did was right. He would have walked over to Jeremiah at the tents and killed him. He wouldn’t have stopped until every asshole that is threatening our home was dead. Why are you letting them force us off the ranch?”

“I didn’t change, Ashley, and they aren’t chasing me away. I’m sending all of you away, but I am staying here to fight.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, alone.”

“Well, that’s just stupid.”

“I’m sure it is, but I haven’t changed. Everything I have done so far has been to keep the people at the ranch safe. Do you know why I didn’t go guns blazing against Stockton like you expect me to do with Jeremiah?”

She shakes her head no.

“Because there were innocent lives involved. If we charged the store, all of the Stick People would have died. Probably most of us as well. I am perfectly capable of killing people I think are bad if I think doing so will keep everyone safe, but I didn’t have that guarantee with Jeremiah. I could have killed him and had five more unknowns just like him come after us from their group. There was only one way I could have dealt with them to ensure everybody’s safety and that would have been to kill them all. I am not ready to do a wholesale slaughter of Isaac’s entire group just because some of them are under the delusion I am a demon possessing this body.”

“I doubt he really believes you are possessed. He wants to kill you because you’re an Atheist.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t it piss you off?”

I look at her for a moment wondering why she cares.

“I’m possessed or I’m an Atheist. Why he wants to kill me isn’t important. Whatever his reason is, I can’t kill that entire group just because some of them are zealots or insane. And as for what I’ve done before, up until now violence and brute force has worked to keep the threats away, but that won’t work with Isaac’s group or the Stick People. I’ve been trying to solve it diplomatically and with restraint, but now I know that they can’t all continue to exist if I want our group to live.”

“Then why send us away? If they are a threat that has to be dealt with, how can you stop them all? You’ll be killed before you get them all, and our people will still be at risk. We should all stay and fight like we were prepared to do against Stockton’s group.”

“There is no way for our group to survive an attack on Jeremiah’s followers. There are only twenty-five of us left, and that includes my children. Jeremiah has a hundred people that are listening to him now, and at least thirty of those are close followers, like
Jim Jones
kind of followers. He wants me and Simone dead more than any of you. That is why she and I have to stay. It will keep him here allowing all of you to escape.”

She looks at me strangely, and Donald walks up interrupting the conversation that is eating into the loading time.

“The first truck is almost loaded, Eddie. If you two help out instead of talking, we could get the supplies started in the second truck,” Donald says trying to chastise us.

“Finish with the first truck, and then help Ashley get the animals loaded in the other one. In fact, forget finishing with the supplies. Just load the animals and the ranch people in the other truck and leave. I want the trucks headed to Katherine’s place in forty-five minutes.”

“What changed?”

“Jeremiah is getting ready to confront me. Some sort of ultimatum that I supposedly won’t be able to back out of. We have just over an hour left due to some ritual he goes through. Arthur said he has a way to clear the swarms in Medford from your path. I’ll find him and send him over to see you.”

As I begin walking away I hear Ashley ask Donald,
Who is Jim Jones?

*

“Eddie, I was just going to look for you,” Arthur says as I approach him by the storage towers near the back of the property. “I have the sirens hooked up in the top containers and there is a rope hanging over the side of each one that can be pulled to set them off.”

“Thank you, Arthur. How long do you think they will run once I start them?”

“I don’t know, but after our talk earlier I figured longer would work better, so I hooked up four car batteries to each siren. It will take a long time for those batteries to drain completely.”

“Great, longer is better. Especially now that we’re taking the animals instead of leaving them as bait. It’s time for everyone to go. Jeremiah is making his move and you need to tell Donald how you plan on drawing the infected swarms away from the trucks.”

“I was going to set up one of the sirens in Medford to draw the infected away from the area our group has to go. I will need to leave an hour before the trucks to be able to get the alarm positioned and have time to escape before a swarm gets to me.”

“That’s not enough time then. The trucks are leaving in just over thirty minutes, is there any way you can get it done in that time?”

“I guess I’ll have too,” he says and walks quickly back toward the trucks.

I look at the moat he built earlier and think it could come in handy once the sirens are blaring.

Several pickup trucks loaded with people drive out of the main gate while I am getting the tractor started. Either Isaac got word to the people that he trusts to leave or people are leaving of their own accord. I wish them the best of luck out on their own. The farm is no place to be if a swarm shows up, but the ranch is no place to hang out if you want to avoid a fight.

I use the tractor to drag some of our fuel tanks to the edge of the ditch and pierce the container walls with the tractor scoop. The smell of gas from the first tank hits me and makes my head swim. When I puncture the side of the oil tank, the smell is tolerable but still not pleasant. The job is done, and this moat will create a half circle of fire that should work as a barrier to let Simone and I escape from Jeremiah. We will have to go on foot to make it through the woods to our first fall back location with supplies, and the fire will let us do that.

I watch the two semi-trucks roll out of the gates. I hope Arthur was able to get a siren set up in time outside of Medford. Those trucks are just meals on wheels for the infected if they get caught by a large swarm. Jeremiah’s people don’t seem too concerned about the trucks leaving. I guess as long as they see I haven’t gone anywhere they are content to let Jeremiah finish his full two hour prep time.

Timothy walks up to me at a brisk pace while I am removing the spark plugs from the tractor. “Eddie, you need to get back to the house. You’re not going to believe who is on the Ham radio.”

Ignoring his statement, I have to ask him, “Why didn’t you leave with the others? You at least got Dianne to leave, didn’t you?”

“Don’t you want to know who it is?”

“I’ll find out when we get there. Just tell me why you didn’t leave.”

“Are you kidding? This is the classic
good versus evil
fight. We wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“So Dianne stayed as well?”