Generation Dead Book 2: What You Fear (10 page)

Blackie sneered and then spit on the lawn.  For half a
second, I thought President Jackson’s guard was going to shoot her on the spot.  His face flashed in rage for a split second before he recovered.

“Your arrogance is duly noted
. However, it will not help you any further.  Robert,” President Jackson spoke to the man behind him. “Take this person to the detention center, and place her in the lower level.  She is to be secured, and then searched.  I want Brenda on this; she will know what to do and what to look for.”

Robert snapped a quick salute then went inside for a second.  Coming back outside, he was carrying a small duffle bag, which he placed in front of Blackie.  He took out handcuffs and leg irons, and when the prisoner was secured to his satisfaction, he placed a small black hood over her head.  When finished, he took Blackie by the arm and walked her out of the yard and down the street.  He was followed by three of the guards.  The fourth went onto the porch and took the position normally reserved for Robert.

President Jackson turned to us and waved us inside.  Once seated around a table, he spoke directly. “Thanks for your help.  Were you able to get any information on your trip back here that might be of any help?”  He spoke to all of us, but the question was directed to Jake.

“I didn’t bother with the why of the situation, since it really wasn’t important and a waste of time to bother asking
,” Jake said.  The president seemed to mull that one over for a second before nodding slightly.

“I did find out that they were planning something bigger, once I figured out how to read between the insults, threats to my sacred well-being, and the destruction of all I held dear.  When I tried to find out what it was, she changed tactics and tried to get me mad enough to kill her.  I could have, easily, especially when she told me she enjoyed infecting children the most, but by then I knew s
he was just trying to cause an incident,” Jake continued. “When I questioned her about where she was from, I got a curious answer.”

“What was that?” President Jackson asked.

I was curious too, and leaned in like the rest of the listeners.

“She said nowhere that I would ever dare to go, being a ‘chicken shit towner’ as she called me
, “Jake said. “I don’t think she meant to say that last out loud, but I think it’s important.”

President Jackson leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “I wonder what she meant. If she thought you were a ‘towner’, which I can only assume meant you were a person who lived in an established community, then she must live in either a remote area outside the communities, like you do, or someplace else, although I can’t think of where that might be.”

Julia spoke up. “She had to learn her hatred of communities.  She’s too young to have formed that opinion on her own. She also has no fear of hurting kids.  That’s not something you see in any community.

I nodded.  “It makes sense.  It also suggests someone has been holding a grudge against society for a long time, and decided the time was right to strike out.”

Jake shook his head.  “Why now? What’s different about now, as opposed to say five or ten years later, or even a few years earlier?  I don’t understand the timing.”

President Jackson stood up, signaling the meeting was over.  “I think we will find out those answers in due time.  In the meanwhile, you might want to take that vial over to the medical center.  I imagine you’d prefer not to have it break open in your pocket.”

Chapter 21

Jake nodded and Julia and I made sure there was plenty of space between Jake and us as we left the presidential home and headed up the street to the medical center.  There were a lot of people about, and a few looked at us curiously.  Several were not shy about pointing at us as we walked up the road, and I could see Jake was slightly irritated by the tightening of his jaw and the narrowing of his eyes.

“What’s everyone’s deal?” Jake asked
of no one in particular. “Why are we so popular?”

I couldn’t let that one go even if I had tried. “Maybe it’s because we’re so darned good looking.”

Jake snorted.  “I’ll buy that for Julia, but you’re a sight.  You got your ass kicked by an ugly tree.”

I casually punched Jake in the arm, causing him to stumble to the side.  He swung back, but there wasn’t any effort in it, since he missed by a mile.  We walked up to the medical building and found it was closed for the day.  I thought that was weird at first, but I guess
that people had to go home sometime.  It was getting later in the evening, so we would have to decide if we were going to stay here of head back home.  I put the question to Jake and Julia.

Jake groaned.  “I’d rather head home, we could be there before it was too dark.  Besides, we don’t have a great track record when it comes to this place.”

I couldn’t argue with that, since Jake had killed a man here and I had fought with several myself.  But all arguments flew out the window when Julia spoke up.

“Let’s stay! We need to get cleaned up anyway, and we could go to dinner and stay in
one of the inns like normal people.  Please please please please please pleeeese?”  Julia looked up at me with big eyes and blinked rapidly.  On her beautiful face, it just looked ridiculous.  I couldn’t do anything but laugh.

Jake grunted. “Well, there goes my plan.  All right, where do you want to stay?  By the way, I still have zombie virus in my pocket.”

I wrapped Julia up in a hug and walked back the way we came.  “Let’s get back to the truck and park it somewhere closer to an inn.  We’ll secure the virus at the truck; I think there’s a container there.  We’ll find a place to stay, clean up, and go eat.  Objections?”

Julia wrapped her arms around my neck and did a pull up to kiss me.  I took that as a no.  Jake just shook his head.  I didn’t think I’d get a kiss from him.

We drove the truck to the edge of town and secured our cargo with one of the storage managers.  He put everything into a small shed and locked it, handing us the key.  If anything happened to our stuff while he was on watch, he’d catch hell and he knew it.  This was his business and he took it seriously.  As far as I knew, no one had ever stolen anything from under his careful eye.

Walking down the main street, we took in the general feel of the place.  People were bustling about, a few stopped to wave and say hi. 
However, there was still a kind of pall over the area, like something was out of kilter.  As I walked, I watched people storing wood and topping off water supplies for winter.  We were about two months away from not having much in the way of rain and the river sometimes froze over.

We decided to splurge and spend our night at the most luxurious hotel in the capital.  It was a four story stone building that looked out over the river. We could have parked our truck in the parking garage that made up the interior of the building, but we would have had to carry all of our stuff into our rooms.

At the front desk, I signed us in for three rooms, and Jake snorted again, but he got over it quickly when Julia stared at him hard enough to draw blood. I opted for the river view rooms with the balconies, and paid the outrageous sum of two silver pieces per room.  It was a lot, and could have bought a decent amount of supplies, but since we were extremely well off in terms of money, I didn’t mind a little splurge.  That was a benefit of being a former collector.  I could go anywhere and get what I wanted without too much fuss.

We went into our separate rooms and I quickly took off my weapons and dirty clot
hes. I was somewhat amused to see how much weaponry I actually carried on myself when I went zombie hunting.  Two knives, a tomahawk, a pistol, three loaded magazines, and a sword.  I was surprised my back didn’t hurt from all that hardware.

After my shower, which was nicely warm, I put on my spare pants and stood out on the balcony drying myself with the evening breeze.  It was cool but I kind of liked it.  With my shirt
off, I felt like some kind of ancient warrior immune to the elements.  The first stiff wind would likely send me scurrying for cover, but I indulged my fantasy for a second.

Figuring I had a moment before everyone was ready, I got out my kerosene spray and brought my blades out to the small table on the balcony.  I sprayed my knives first, burning off any virus that may be sticking around.  I didn’t see any red flames, so that was a good sign.  I wasn’t going to have to make another sheath this time.  My ‘hawk burned red for a while, but since I used it the most, that wasn’t a surprise.  My sword took the longest, because it was so big, but it was always fun to hold that flaming sword up like a torch.  One of these
days, I was going to burn myself being silly, but not today.  When the flames died, I realized it was a good thing I was on the top floor or I might have scared the hell out of anyone above me.

After the burning, I pulled out a piece of steel wool and a small bottle of oil.  Fine steel wool was useful stuff.  It could clean a weapon, polish some metal, and small bits could start a fire.   I rubbed each blade until they were shiny, then worked a bit of oil around to keep things from rusting.  My weapons were all carbon steel, and they needed care.  My sword made me grateful it was cool out, as I really had to work that big boy.

When I was done, I looked up and was surprised to see Julia looking at me from her own balcony.  She was wearing just a towel, and her wet blonde hair was pulled back behind her ears.  She looked absolutely stunning, and I felt something turn over in my chest as I smiled at her.

“How was your shower?” I asked, putting my blades away.

“Warm. Lovely.” Julia looked at me through lowered lashed. “Lonely,” she added.

I went over to the railing that separated us, reached over and pulled her close for a lone kiss.  “Behave yourself
,” I said, with not a small amount of regret.

Julia grinned wickedly at me.  “If you say so.” She turned away and in the same motion, dropped her towel as she went back into her room.  I had a glimpse of slender, athletic legs rising up to perfectly rounded buttocks.  I tried to see more, but she closed the bedroom door and I had to keep from falling over the railing.

Behind me, a voice sniggered. “Jackass.”

Chapter 22

I spun around and saw Jake standing there.  He was holding a burning knife and grinning at me with the most annoying look
that he could put on his face, which was impressive.

I decided not to rise to the occasion, metaphorically speaking, since physically I was already halfway there. “Your time will come
,” I croaked, having had my mouth go suddenly dry a few seconds ago.

Jake cocked his head as he studied his burning knife. “That a threat? Not like you, Aaron.”

I shook my head. “No, stupid. Someday you’ll fall in love, too.”

Jake’s smile turned real. “You feel that strong, huh? Good for you.  Everybody should at some point.” His voice turned more serious.  “Hope she feels the same way, bro.”

I hadn’t thought about it, and suddenly I was scared.  I mean, I knew she cared about me, but what if she didn’t feel the same way?  What if I told her and made a complete fool out of myself?  I couldn’t possibly live in the same place as she, knowing she didn’t feel like I did.  I decided not to say anything until she did.  That way I would know for sure, and then not feel stupid.

“Well, I’ll let her tell me first, then I’ll know
,” I said, gathering up my blades and ‘hawk.

“Good plan
,” Jake said. 

I couldn’t tell if he was being supportive or sarcastic, and right then I really didn’t care.

We all got ourselves together enough to go and get something to eat.  We were dressed casual, but each of us had a weapon on us somewhere.  It was too much of a habit not to.  Julia was all flirty smiles and I felt like my heart was going to burst, but I tried to play it cool.  Jake saw my dilemma and was openly grinning at me like the jerk he was.

At the restaurant, was sat near a table at the back, and the place was reasonably full, which was good for the business, and for things in general.  A lot of the patrons were old timers, reliving the good old days.  If a meal out was becoming the norm for a lot of people, then things may finally be returning to what my dad had talked about before the Upheaval.  It was something to think about.

Halfway into our meal, a gorgeous blonde walked into the restaurant.  She was wearing tight jeans and a form-fitting shirt that left nothing to the imagination.  Her knee-high boots were shiny black, and she wore a vest which accented her ample charms.  Her long hair hung in a way that framed her face, and her eyes were taunting and contemptuous at the same time.  She was a woman to fight for, and many had, if I recalled correctly.  All conversation seemed to stop when she looked around.  Spotting our table, she strutted across the room, clearly aware of the effect she was having.  Julia did the same thing, only she wasn’t aware of her effects.

“Hey
beautiful,” the blonde said, sitting next to Julia and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Julia gave her a hug. “Hey yourself, Kayla.  I didn’t know you were going to stay in the capital.”