Desolation (22 page)

Andrew stood up and nearly collapsed. He caught himself on the
handrail of the balcony and looked over at the man with suspicion,
struggling to breathe.

Jerri leaned down and picked up Jacob, patting the baby on the
back gently.

 

“Yeah, thanks,” Andrew finally said. “Name’s Andrew.”
“I’m Jerri,” she told the man. She rocked the baby and looked
down at him. “And this is Jacob.”

The man studied the trio carefully, wringing his hands together
nervously. He listened to the infected moan and clamor on the ground
below.

“Withers,” the man finally said. “But my friends used to just call
me Witt. I’m guessing you’d all like to come inside for a spell.”

“Depends,” Andrew said as he glanced at the balcony door. “Last
time we walked inside things didn’t go so well. So what’s waiting for us
inside this time?”

Witt cackled.

 

“Tea,” he said, “And if we’re lucky there may be some biscuits to
go with it.”

 

The group walked into apartment and Witt slid the sliding glass
door shut behind them.

 

The infected on the street lowered their arms and staggered
aimlessly along the pavement, wandering off into every direction.
33

W
itt’s apartment was , to Jerri's surprise, very clean and tidy.
Trinkets and knickknacks covered the living room walls and the
apartment was nicely appointed with fine furnishings. The windows were
all covered with black sheets. A powerless television dominated the living
room wall, a monolithic technological monument to a world that didn’t
exist anymore.

Situated directly across for the living room sat the kitchen. Like
the rest of the apartment, it was meticulously clean and was nicely
stocked. Cans of food, soda, and bottles of water sat stacked underneath
the cabinets. A propane oven sat in the middle of the kitchen in front of
the powerless refrigerator.

Two bedroom doors sat at the end of a hallway between the
kitchen and the living room; one of the doors was locked on the outside
with a padlock and the other bedroom as decorated with colorful floral
prints and had a sign on it that read ‘JeSsIcA ~ Knock First’.

The front door was barricaded and the entire apartment was lit by
an array of kerosene lanterns.

Jerri and Andrew sat uncomfortably on the sofa with their
emptied cups sitting in front of them on the coffee table. The tea and
biscuits were a rare treat and absolutely delicious.

Even better was the hot meal of canned chicken and lima beans
that Witt had cooked for them.

Jerri held Jacob in her arms and held his new bottle against his
lips, but to her disappointment he was deep asleep and wouldn’t touch the
formula.

Witt sat in front of them on the recliner, inhaling his herbal tea
and savoring the aroma with his eyes closed.

 

Nobody said anything since they came inside and an awkward
silence hung heavily in the air.

“So,” Witt finally said, opening his eyes. “How long has it been
since you two escaped from the FEMA camp, or, as we call ‘em out here,
the famine camps?”

Witt chuckled.
Andrew looked over at him, surprised.
“How did you know we came from a camp…?” he asked.

“Well it is pretty obvious,” Witt mused. “If you were from the
outlands, you’d know better than to walk around the city at night. By the
looks of you two I’d say you’ve been out only about a day or two.”

Andrew looked down and felt embarrassed.
Jerri had a puzzled looked on her face.

“I’m sorry, but since when did the shamblers turn into vampires
who only come out at night?” she asked. “This whole behavior is new to
me…”

Witt started to laugh and slap his knee.

“Shamblers! I like that! We call them for what they are out here.
We just call them zombies,” he said matter-of-factly. “No need to be all
politically correct. They don’t get offended. Still to answer your question,
the zombies didn’t start hiding from the sunlight until a few months ago.
Guess they saw how quick they were drying up and dying off.”

“We saw some burrow in the desert earlier,” Andrew spoke up.
Witt shrugged.

“I’ve heard of that. Up north I heard they lie in rivers and hide in
sod. It doesn’t surprise me since its all the same reasoning. I heard that
the cold killed them all up north.” Witt said as he took a sip of tea. “Of
course, this is all just rumor. The fact is that if you get close enough to
one of their hiding spots and they catch your scent… well… they couldn’t
care less about the sunlight. They’re opportunistic predators.”

Andrew nodded, fascinated. The whole point of the project he
was once a part of was becoming apparent to him; he had no idea that the
undead population was still such a problem. He never really understood
the project at first, given the side-effects it had on healthy humans, but it
all started to become quite crystal clear.

“There goes your intelligent zombie theory,” Jerri mused. “Guess
it wasn’t a trap after all… We just disturbed their nap.”

Andrew looked over at her, embarrassed.
Witt laughed.

“They’re smart… but not smart enough to make traps,” Witt
said. He sat his cup down and leaned closer, folding his hands on his lap.
“So how did you do it?” he asked in a secretive tone. “I heard that those
FEMA bastards weren’t letting anybody leave the encampments…”

Andrew looked away and hesitated.
“There was a siege,” Jerri answered. “The marauders were using
the vaccine to infect the camp from outside the walls… We escaped
during the chaos.”

Witt nodded and sat back in his chair and his poncho flapped
open. For the first time Andrew and Jerri noticed the two sawed-off
shotguns the man had hidden underneath.

“It’s a shame what some people have become. The raiding parties
stay away from the big cities… too many buildings have zombies hiding in
them,” Witt explained. He took a toothpick out of his front pocket and
started to chew on it, staring up at the ceiling. “Bet those raiders ended up
empty handed, huh?”

“You have no idea,” Andrew said, shaking his head.
Witt laughed.

“Nope, I have a pretty good idea,” he said with a wink. “That’s
why when everyone else was lining up to go to the FEMA camps, I
rushed down to the local Wal-Mart and, uh, liberated some supplies.
Considering how they handled the outbreak on the east coast, I didn’t
have much faith in them to handle things better out west. My wife
thought I was crazy but I was right.”

“Doesn’t seem to be many of you survivalist types left,” Andrew
said, leaning back on the sofa.

 

Witt cackled.

“A survivalist?! Me?!” he continued to laugh and slap his knees.
“Hell, it doesn’t take much knowledge to open a can of green beans!
Once my supplies run out, I’m fucked. But know what? I’ve made peace
with that fact.”

Andrew and Jerri looked at him in silence.

“Save the last bullet, that’s my motto,” Witt said. He methodically
chewed on one end of the toothpick and then rolled it over to the
opposite side of his mouth. “There are more of us held up in the city than
you might think.”

“Why didn’t they come out when we were walking around like
idiots? Why didn’t they say something?
Do
something?” Jerri asked,
shaking her head.

Witt stared at her, studying her face in the flickering lantern light.

“Oh believe me, they were watching. I’d bet my golden pocket
watch on it if I had one. You just didn’t have anything they wanted. Why
would they try to approach a stranger? People get killed that way. The
only reason I saved you is because I saw that little baby you got bundled
up there. It didn’t feel right to ignore you.”

“We almost did get killed,” Andrew said. “We busted a lock and
went into a grocery store… It looked empty but a man was inside and
pulled a gun on us.”

Witt looked over at him.

 

“You broke into someone’s hiding place? Was he alone?” Witt
asked, scratching his beard.

 

Andrew shrugged.

“His wife and kids were in there with him,” Jerri answered for
him as she tried to feed Jacob. She was getting annoyed that the baby
wasn’t taking the formula. “His wife gave me the baby formula.”

Witt rocked in his recliner and gave a
tsk.

“I would have blown your heads off. I don’t know why he
hesitated. I bet he didn’t even have any ammo in that damned thing!” Witt
said, laughing.

Another awkward silence. Jerri broke it.

 

“Is it just you or…?” Jerri asked, studying the collage of framed
photos on the living room wall.

Witt gave a hearty sigh and stood. He walked over to the wall and
took down a framed photograph of a beautiful woman with long brunette
hair standing next to a teenage girl on the verge of becoming as beautiful
as her mother. A clean-shaven Witt wearing a suit stood next to the two
girls. He handed the photograph to Jerri and sat back down in the
recliner.

Jerri stared at the picture a moment and placed it down on the
coffee table, smiling politely at Witt.

“They’re beautiful,” she asked.
Witt smiled.

“Thank you,” he said as he picked up his cup of tea and took
another sip. “They were.”

 

Jerri frowned.

“Was it the virus…?” she asked. The question felt redundant to
her; she knew what happened. It was the same thing that happened to
most of the population. It was a question she asked out of habit more
than anything else.
Witt gave her a half-smile and nodded.

“I was immune to the Piedmont Flu,” he said, rolling up his left
pant cuff. Scarred human bite-marks covered his calf. “See? I guess Jess
took after her mother’s genes in the end. They both wanted to evacuate…
but they were already showing symptoms. I thought that Acexa was the
answer…”

“I’m sorry,” she said apologetically, looking away.
“Don’t be,” Witt said.

“Are you the one who had to put them down?” Andrew asked,
curious.

Jerri glared at him for asking such an insensitive question.
Witt didn’t seem affected. He simply smiled.

“While I don’t mind offering you a hot meal and a place to rest
your head, you really can’t stay here,” Witt said. “I don’t have the supplies
for an extended stay and, frankly, it’s not safe here. I think your presence
bothers them. I’m sorry.”

Something knocked against the padlocked bedroom door down
the hallway and jiggled the doorknob.

Jerri and Andrew startled but Witt seemed unaffected.
“Is that…?” Andrew turned towards Witt, baffled and horrified.

“Sometimes it’s hard to do what you have to do when you really
love someone, Andrew,” Witt said as he dug his fingernails into the
recliner arms.

Andrew was going to say something but fell silent. He knew what
the man was talking about. After all, his adoration for Jerri made him do
what he did to Chris just to keep his past a secret.

“So what is your plan, if I may?” Witt asked.

 

Andrew looked over at Jerri and hesitated a moment. Finally he
turned towards Witt.

 

“We need a way to get to the Air Force Base,” Andrew said. “Do
you know how to get there?”

 

Witt raised an eyebrow.

 

“The military left months ago,” Witt carefully explained. “Well…
most of them left. I think quite a few stayed behind, deserters.”
Andrew shook his head.

 

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I just need a plane or a helicopter
that they left behind. Can you get me there?”

 

Witt thought about the question as he chewed on his toothpick.

“I know how to get there,” he finally said. “I can take you to the
base at sunrise and give you some supplies for your journey, but I don’t
think it will do much good. What is the ultimate plan once you get the
plane?”

“We plan on flying to the Capital,” Andrew said.
Witt laughed and shrugged.

“You’ll have to forgive me,” Witt said, “I’ve been a little bit out
of the loop it seems. We have a Capital or a government for that matter?
I’ve heard jokers come though saying that they formed a new government
based out of California called the Allied States… Then I’ve heard that
Texas took over half of the country… Now you’re telling me that the old
shitty government that started all of this mess is still around. Hell, I can’t
even keep track of who collects the taxes. I just give up on the whole
mess.”

Jerri giggled.
Andrew frowned.

“
Yes
, we do have a central government. The Continuity of
Government Act made sure of that,” Andrew explained. “Our Capital is
Camp 7 in North Dakota. We even have a president.”

“Oh? Another black fella here to promise change? Or is it a
woman this time? A slick-talking republican? Who did I elect this time?
What is their name?”

Andrew flushed, embarrassed.
“No idea,” Andrew muttered.

Witt laughed. He took the toothpick out of his mouth and slid it
back into his pocket. He rocked in his chair and looked over at Andrew
earnestly.

“I lost my faith in them,” Witt explained. “Do you know that
they tried bombing us a few weeks ago?”

 

Andrew blinked and looked at him in confusion.

“They dropped some sort of ordnance from the sky into the
middle of downtown but it was a dud. Now it’s just setting there…
collecting dust and attracting scavengers who keep trying to pry it open,”
Witt said.
“Was it a nuke?” Jerri asked.

Witt shook his head.

 

“I doubt it,” he said. “It doesn’t look like any type of bomb I’ve
ever seen…”

Andrew thought for a moment and then nodded.
“Thermobaric, I bet,” Andrew said.

“Bingo,” Witt answered as he pointed his finger at Andrew.
“That’s what I’m assuming. I think they tried to fry the entire city. Those
scavenging jackals are in for a nasty surprise if they keep messing around
with it.”

Andrew shook his head and closed his eyes.
“Regardless, I need to get to that base,” Andrew replied.

“I’ll get you to your base,” Witt said. “What you do from there is
on you. Nothing in life is free but we can discuss the details of our
arrangement in the morning.”