Beyond the Barriers (13 page)

Birds called out to us as we passed. An entire murder of crows took off when Liz waved her gun in their directions.

“Good eating, crow,” she said without any expression in her voice.

“Help us!” A man called from one of the houses. A pair of our men jumped over the side of the truck as it came to a stop in the front yard. Two more went over the other side and spread around the truck, their backs to us so all angles were covered. I was impressed by their cohesiveness.

I jumped down and followed Liz, who seemed determined to lead the way. The two others fell in behind her. One was O’Connell. With four on guard duty and us advancing, I felt confident in my comrade’s ability to react to a threat. They were good.

“Remind me why we are baby sitting the neighborhood? Could just mean more mouths to feed,” the guy on her left said.

“Because they’re people, and we need more if we’re going to win this fight.” O’Connell kept pace with them and looked at the guy.

Another scream from inside made our group pick up the pace. I glanced around to check the position of our back up one more time. The driver of the truck was on the radio. He was probably assuring the compound that we were safe and sound.

I turned my attention back to the house. It was a huge three story that was probably built in the 70s. A grown over gutter draped the building. Vines had snaked their way up the side and given the place a genuinely creepy feel.

Windows were darkened from closed blinds or curtains. I thought I saw one slip aside ever so slightly, but when I studied it the material held firm.

“Help us!” a voice called. It sounded like a woman.

I moved over tall grass, crunching over some unidentified objects as I went. I didn’t want to think about those.

We reached the house, and Liz was the first through. One of the guys went with her, while Daniel and I set up a perimeter. They had some basic hand gesture down pat, so I played along like I understood what they were saying to each other.

There was a commotion from the inside, but no shots. We remained vigilant, but didn’t follow. After a few seconds, Liz called out.

“We found them.”

Daniel lowered his guard and weapon. The others nodded at each other and filed into the open door. I was the last in and the last to curse.

The room was a mess of overturned furniture and ruined floor. Someone had burned a hole in the hardwood and built a fire pit in the center of the room. A pile of burned wood lay around the sides, and empty cans of food were tossed in the corners. The walls were covered in spray painted words, but they looked like they were done by an illiterate hand. I couldn’t make them out to save my life.

The others were lowering their weapons to the ground. As my eyes adjusted to the room, I became aware of other figures. A couple huddled behind a sofa, and someone poked around a corner with a machine gun of some sort.

Ah hell!

We were surrounded. Someone had set a trap, and we had fallen right into it. I glanced up at the foyer, finding another guard hanging over the side of the railing on the second floor. He had a gun trained on us as well.

Dejected, I lowered my rifle. A few days back in the world of the living and I was already being subjected to the worst of human kind. Bad enough all those creatures trying to kill us, now we had rival humans after us as well.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Liz asked when we were all in the room.

Someone had a pistol pointed at her head. He was standing close to her, but with the sunlight pouring in from the window behind him, I couldn’t make out any features.

“The meaning of
this
? Oh. You fell for our pretty little trap. Ain’t that a bitch?” That voice was familiar.

“We came to help!” Liz looked furious, with her mouth set in a hard line, eyes daring the gun to waver from her forehead.

“And help you did, darling. You helped us to some shiny new weapons, a new truck, and whatever supplies you have in said vehicle. I bet you have food out there, don’t ya. Never enough food to feed all us hungry men that are just trying to keep the peace in the new world.”

That voice!

“Son of a bitch!” Daniel said.

“Now now. Just call your friends in; don’t give us a way. I would hate to paint the walls with this one’s brains.” The man gestured at Liz with his gun.

“We aren’t going to hurt you. Just fuck you over. If you run back really fast, you may be able to avoid any creepers in these parts.”

A couple guys holstered their guns and patted down our crew. They took their time going over Liz with their hands. She was stiff as a board as they handled her, but her eyes were livid.

The speaker shifted to one side, and I caught a flash of brown that didn’t look like military boots to me. Snakeskin. That’s when it hit me.

“Lee! What the hell!” I said before I could help myself.

He turned to regard me. His eyes were tired, red rimmed. They sat in sockets that were almost skeletal. I nearly took a step back when I saw the change. What happened to the man that was planning to guard his post? To protect the innocent? His motivation may have been mixed up when we first met, but this was insane.

“I know you?” He squinted his eyes as he considered me. He kept the gun in a steady grip, though.

“You were setting up a road block months ago. I thought you were one of the good guys.”

“Good guys. No such thing anymore.”

“Come on, Lee, we’re both ex-military. Why don’t you let us go, and we can just forget this happened. We’ll leave, and you can slink back to your shit hole.” Damn my mouth.

“Ex-military. Let me tell you something about this world, son. I left my family in the care of the military, and do you know what they did?”

I stared back, waiting for the answer to his rhetorical question. One of the men shifted, lowered his guard as we went through the motions of dropping our gear on the floor. I set my rifle down then slowly lay my pistol next to it.

“They left. They didn’t even bother to stick around and protect them. They just up and left. Now I don’t know about you, but is that any way to treat women and children? They left fifteen families in a big school gym. Deserted them. When I found my wife, my Margaret, she was dead. Eaten away. But she wasn’t. See, I had to watch her get up and stagger toward me.”

Lee stepped toward me. The space between us was only a few feet, but he made it seem immense as his enflamed eyes bore into me. He took a step, mimicking one of the dead. His gun was leveled at my forehead. I was pretty sure he was completely unbalanced and about to splatter my brains all over the entryway.

“I just watched her walk up to me. I let her into my guard, felt her arm around my neck. She didn’t smell like my Margaret any more. Not by a long stretch.” He stopped right in front of me, gun leveled at the space between my eyes. I didn’t stare into it. Instead I used my peripheral vision to study his men. The rest had lowered their guard as we dropped our guns. Even the man on the floor above was no longer pointing his weapon at us.

“I held her back. Kept my hand on her neck so she couldn’t bite me. I looked into her undead eyes and wanted to see some spark of life. You know what I saw instead?”

His eyes were huge as he cocked the gun.

“Nothing. I didn’t see a damn thing.”

On the word ‘thing,’ I flowed. I kept my eye on the weapon even as I moved to the right. If he fired, it would go past my forehead. My left hand was already moving. I slammed the barrel away from my face, wrapped my hand around it, and wrenched it toward his chest.

My foot swept around his legs, so we looked like we were in a weird half-embrace. If I wanted to, I could have swept his legs out from under him with a sharp twist of my hip, but that would get me nowhere. Lee was at my mercy. I wrenched the gun up and put my finger over the trigger guard. I might not have been able to force a shot, but I did twist the gun so the barrel was under his chin. I pressed up, just so he was aware that I was a few foot-pounds of pressure away from putting a bullet through his brain.

“Hey, HEY!” one of his men shouted.

“Tell them to back off or I put a bullet through your head!” My voice came out raw and broken. I was mad, and adrenaline was making me even more volatile. I had always trained to remain calm under pressure. Keep my head down, assess the situation, and then react. I had tossed the first two rules out, and if I kept up on this path, I was likely to get us all killed.

“You think this is some kind of television show? Huh? Think I’m going to just say the word and my men will back down? It ain’t that easy, son. My boys are hungry and trigger happy, so why don’t you just drop the hard-ass act and lower the gun.”

“Out! Everyone out! Get to the truck. If any of the others follow I WILL kill him!” I didn’t look around. I didn’t meet anyone else’s eyes. I didn’t wait for confirmation. With Lee still bent, back arched, I marched us to the door. He didn’t struggle; he seemed to take it in stride, and even smiled at me.

The gaping spot where he was missing a tooth showed in his skeletal grin.

The rest of the crew filed out as I stood in front of the door. Liz tried to meet my gaze, but I had it firmly on Lee. I didn’t want any mistakes. If any of them flinched, I was going to kill him.

O’Connell snatched his handgun off the floor, but kept it low as he went out. I backed out last. It was awkward to hold him like this and walk to the truck. Words were whispered back and forth between the folks we had left outside and the reconnaissance team, as I now thought of them.

“It’s not personal.” I said as I hauled him into the cab with me.

The others dropped down low in the truck bed and scrambled for weapons. I didn’t know the drivers name but he nodded at me once then started the truck.

It groaned as he shifted into reverse. He gunned the engine and we shot backward. Lee was half hanging out of the truck and I didn’t have any choice but to let him go. He fell to the ground as we went around the corner. I slammed the door shut, but not before I got a full dose of hate from Lee. If looks could kill, I would have been six feet under.

* * *

We returned with less than we had left with, but we were alive. The driver had radioed ahead, and when we pulled into the compound it was to a small army. The men and women came out in force and looked ready for war. I saw every kind of weapon, including long blades. A couple even sported what looked like Asian swords.

Thomas met us as we came through the gate.

When folks simmered down and went back inside, I was left with just the crew that had gone out on the “rescue mission.” Thomas listened to the story again and thanked me with a handshake.

As we headed home, Liz turned to confront me. Her eyes were angry, and I could understand a reprimand. I could have played it cool, given our weapons over, and maybe they would have let us go just like they said. Maybe they would have used us as hostages or even tried to get info on our forces.

“Christ, Tragger.” She sighed loudly. “I’m not going to say that was a stupid fucking thing to do.”

“You don’t have to.”

We walked in silence for a few feet. Daniel turned and winked at me, then sped off into the Walmart. The others kept pace. I guess he had a hot date.

“You know you just made an enemy, right?” she said. “Lee isn’t going to forget that nor forgive you.”

“I know.”

I would like to report that was the end of Lee, that I never saw him again. That, sadly, is not what happened in the coming weeks.

* * *

I went to the gym again that night, but she didn’t show. I worked away some of the tension I had built up during the stand off in town. There was no way I would be able to sleep, as amped up as I still was, so I worked out until I was beyond exhausted.

I planned to ask Thomas about Katherine, but it seemed prudent to mind my own business. I’m sure she had her reasons, and they were none of my concern.

The next day, Thomas showed me the communication room where they were picking up a signal from Portland on a low band radio. There had been communication for a few weeks, although sporadically, about the work on the city to keep out the undead and the ghouls. I listened intently, because Allison might be there, if she was still alive.

They had been formulating a way to leave the compound.

I was taken aback at first. They had shelter, a way to protect themselves, and they had food and water.

“This won’t last forever. We have held out pretty well, but the supplies you see are all that’s left for miles around. A lot of people in the store don’t want to be isolated anymore. So many rumors out there about the cities being free of the dead. About the government being in control. They just want a chance at a normal life.”

Plans based on rumors. I wished I had a better idea on how to proceed.

The strategic exit was pretty basic—they didn’t need something with a million steps to get out. The hard part would be the distraction. Someone was going to drive a small tanker to the end of town, near the barricade through which I had blasted, and detonate the truck’s gas supply. The gas station in the parking lot meant we had a good bit of fuel for all the trucks, so we could spare a few hundred gallons to light up the day. When the ghouls went to investigate, the convoy would leave and head for Portland.