Hamsikker 3 (2 page)

“Dakota, when I said this wasn’t a localized event, I meant it wasn’t just localized to the US. What happened, hit everywhere: Russia, Europe, Asia…everywhere.”

Bishop steered Black Jack down a rough path, and the woods thinned out, the trees gradually disappearing behind them. Soon he would have them back on track, and they would be safely back to base long before evening. He could see the zombies in the fields and on the roads, but he kept them at a safe distance.

“I see,” said Dakota. So it really was over. How could this happen? How could He let this happen? Perhaps it would’ve been better if Javier had just killed her. Instead, she had somehow survived, and now she was going to have to face this. What kind of world was this in which to bring up a baby?

Bishop barely heard her, so quietly did she speak. There didn’t seem much point in talking about it. What was done, was done, and no one but God could change that. If there was one thing Bishop didn’t like to do, though, it was let depression catch a hold. There was a lot to be depressed about, but he refused to go down that road. There was still so much to do, so many people to save, that he focused on what he could do, not what he couldn’t. Some things were just out of his control, and he could tell that if he didn’t say anything, Dakota was likely to fall into that downward spiral that had caught him so many times in the past.

“I’ve got a few places I stay at. Places that are secure and well hidden. I’ve made them that way so I can sleep at night. You can’t spend every night with one eye open. So that’s where we’re going right now. One of my bases.”

“But where’s home?” asked Dakota.

“Home? I don’t have one. That’s gone. I lost a lot of things when the dead came back to life, and my home was just one of them. I don’t like to stay in one place for too long. Right now, I’m taking us some place safe. You’ll see. Just rest Dakota, and trust me. I’ll get you and Jonas there soon. Then you and me can sit down and have a chat about things.”

‘Trust me.’ Dakota physically winced at the words. Trust was exactly what had gotten them into this mess, and now here she was doing it all over again. Whilst Bishop was clearly holding something back, she had to admit that he wasn’t like Javier. Bishop could quite easily leave them for dead, and she had to take him at face value that he was only trying to help. What was it he had said, that he helped people on their way? Maybe his base was a giant supermarket, or a canned goods store loaded with guns and ammunition. Maybe he lived with others in a communal apartment complex with high walls and gun towers with people on the lookout for zombies.

“Are there others? Do you have a doctor there, at your base?”

“No, there’s no doctor. Look, I’ll do what I can for your husband, but I don’t want you to get too excited about where we’re headed. It’s safe, but it’s nothing flashy. I get up when the sun comes up, and I sleep when it goes down. I don’t live alone all the time, but there’s nothing to worry about. You probably won’t even meet him tonight. We’ll take care of you. Between us we have enough experience to look after your husband.”

“So there’s no doctor at your base, not even a nurse?”

Bishop’s instinct told him Dakota wasn’t just concerned for her husband. There was something else in her questions, something he needed to find out. “Dakota, if you’ve got something to tell me, now’s the time.”

“That man who beat my husband, the one who killed my friends. He beat me too.”

“I can see that, and I’m real sorry about it. Ain’t no real man goes beating up women like he did.” Bishop had seen the end of the fight, but had been too far away to intervene. By the time he had caught up with them, the monster dishing out the beatings had escaped in a van with others. “Truly, I wish I could’ve gotten to you five minutes earlier than I did.”

“I can live with the beating I took. I can live with the pain for a while, but…I’m worried.”

“About what?”

Dakota paused. If she was going to trust this man, she may as well be completely honest. She was reluctant to give too much away, but the truth was that she was terrified. Jonas could be out for days, weeks, for all she knew, and she couldn’t wait that long.

“I’m pregnant. I’m worried that my baby might, that what he did to me…”

“You’re pregnant?” Bishop was more than a little surprised, but he knew the last thing a pregnant woman needed was for him to fly off the handle. Her hands were around his waist, and he could feel how much she was shaking. After all she had been through, with not even knowing if her husband would pull through, she was going to have a child?

“If you want to leave us here, that’s fine,” said Dakota. There were some buildings down the road, the outskirts of a small town. “I don’t want to be a burden. We can…”

“Dakota, you can stop that right now. I ain’t about to drop you in the middle of nowhere and leave either you
or
Jonas behind. Pregnant, huh? Well, I guess we’ll just deal with that as best we can. Right now I need you to relax. You’re safe now, Dakota.” Bishop knew she didn’t believe him. He could sense her fear. “I’m one of the good guys. You’re safe.”

CHAPTER TWO

Perched on a reclining chair with some cold soup warming her stomach, Dakota was finally beginning to accept that she could relax. Bishop had made sure she was comfortable, and it was true; she did feel safe, at least, for now.

She had let Bishop tend to Jonas, clean and dress his wounds, and then they had put him to bed. She tried to make Jonas sip some water, but she couldn’t bring him round, and so there was little more they could do now except wait. Bishop didn’t seem to think he had any life-threatening injuries, but he had taken a solid beating, and they wouldn’t know for sure how bad it was until he regained consciousness. So for now, she was waiting, hoping, and doing a lot of praying. She expected the worst, based on the fact that so much had gone wrong for them lately, but she didn’t want it to end like this. She didn’t want it to end at all. What she had with Jonas was special, and she knew she had treated him badly of late. There were quite a few things she had said to him in anger and regretted. When he was back with her, she would talk to him, apologize, and make sure they were okay. The last thing she wanted was to be without him, and as much as she was safe, she couldn’t face the prospect of going on without him.

They made sure Jonas was as comfortable as possible, and then settled in for the night. Dakota made sure she was never far away in case Jonas woke, and she intended to sleep by his side as far as that was possible in the close confines of the cabin.

“So go on, Bishop” she said as she wiped the last traces of soup from the bowl, “you were going to explain how you ended up here. This isn’t exactly your typical family home.”

“This? This place was just luck,” said Bishop, patting the solid walls surrounding them. “I came across it by fluke really. I wasn’t looking for it, or looking for anything in particular. At the time I was just…wandering.”

“Wandering?”

Bishop grunted. “You remember what it was like at the start, right? Things turned sour pretty quick. We’ve all got our sob stories, and I ain’t about to launch into one now, but I lost a lot of myself. I lost a lot. Everything and everyone I cared about. I’m not so blinkered that I don’t see that all around me though. The people I meet all have horrible tales to tell, memories they wish they could get rid of but that haunt them all the same. So how did I end up here?” Bishop looked across at Hamsikker, sleeping soundly.

“I guess we got plenty of time. My identity was my family, and when I lost them, I lost myself. Now I’m just Bishop. Links me back to my family, but lets me move on. Nobody calls me by my name anymore, not since my wife passed. Annalise was the most amazing woman I ever met. What went down was just…well, anyways, I don’t like to talk about her like that. In the past tense, you know? I try to remember all the good times we had. I try to honor her memory. There were times I wanted to give up, times I did, but something always pulled me back. So, yeah, I was wandering. Didn’t seem no point in staying at home, so I left. I just started walking and didn’t stop.”

“And you found this place?” asked Dakota.

“Not exactly. Not at first. I stayed a while in a farmhouse further south. I was living on scraps, whatever I could find. Wasn’t much of an existence. There were some fruit trees around the place which kept me going a while. I managed to get some fresh apples and pears, and as sweet as they were, I found the taste quite bland. After I lost my Annalise, I just didn’t know how to go on. It was as if the world had turned grey.

“I came across a young kid out in the fields one day. I was trying to find some fresh water, and there he was, clear as day, just sitting on the ground. He wasn’t doing nothing, just sitting there looking at me as I walked up to him, as if it was just a regular day. I asked him what he was doing, told him it wasn’t safe being out in the open like that, and he just smiled at me. Didn’t pull a gun, didn’t run away, just smiled at me. I talked to him a while, asked him to come with me back to the farmhouse, that I would help him if I could, and all he did was sit there and smile. It was damn strange. At the time I couldn’t understand it. Quite a young guy too. He had a few cuts and bruises. I could tell he had been through the ringer, but he had a lot of life left in him. As far as I could tell, he wasn’t seriously hurt. He had no bags, no weapons, nothing. I sat with him a while, but eventually it started to turn cold. I practically begged him to come in with me, but he didn’t budge. As I started to leave him, I could hear Annalise in my head telling me to make him come, telling me to drag him if I had to, to force him to come back to the house with me, but I ignored her and went on back. I figured he must be retarded or something, but I never got to find out. Next day I went out to go and talk to him some more, and he wasn’t there.”

“He’d gone?”

Bishop looked at Dakota, a frown across his face. “They’d gotten to him in the night. All that was left from where I’d found him the day before was a scrap of clothing, and a shitload of blood. I found what was left of his body a few feet away. I never heard a sound in the night, never heard him cry or shout. What makes somebody do that? I think that he’d given up. Something inside of him had made him sit down and just wait for it. Christ, he was so young. I tried to deny it, but I knew when I left him there that he didn’t stand much chance. I think I knew what was going to happen, but I didn’t accept it, I couldn’t. I had a look around for the zombies that had taken him, but they’d cleared out. Must’ve had a good feed and moved on. I found a small carrier bag on my way back to the farmhouse. I thought at first it was just rubbish, but when I looked inside I knew it was his. There were a few pictures, and he was in a few of them. Some were of a young boy with his parents, and some were later on when he was grown up. The photos were covered in dried blood. There was one of the kid wearing a suit, his arm around this beautiful young woman, and he was smiling just like he did at me that day. That poor kid…

“I buried him, or what was left of him. I put the pictures of his family in with him. Seemed like the least I could do. That’s when I knew. I had lost so much, and given the chance to do something, I had turned my back. I could’ve helped that young man, and I left him to die.”

“Sounds to me like he wanted to die,” said Dakota. “You offered to help, and he turned you down.”

“So does that make it right?” Bishop shook his head slowly. “No, I spent that whole night trying to figure it out. I had myself a good talk with Annalise. She was right. I should’ve taken him in. I should’ve made him come with me. I knew full well what would happen if I left him out there alone, and yet I did. As miserable as I was it never occurred to me back then that others were hurting too. I was so wrapped up in my own problems that I was ignorant to what was going on around me. I could still make a difference. I could still
help
people. I swore after it happened that I wouldn’t turn my back again. I intended to help people get where they were going, wherever they needed to be. Sometimes I don’t know at first where that is, but it soon becomes apparent.”

“You’ve helped a lot of people then? You’ve taken a lot of people in?” Dakota looked at Jonas. He was still breathing, but it didn’t look like he was going to wake up anytime soon. “Like Lukas?”

“Well, not all like Lukas,” said Bishop, casting a glance over at the sleeping man. “You see, Dakota, some people need help getting to where they should be, but they don’t even realize it themselves. Sometimes I have to step in, give them a little push.”

“How do you mean?”

Bishop was about to answer when he heard a noise.

Jonas’s eyes fluttered open reluctantly. His eyelids were stuck together through a mixture of sweat and sleep. There was a dim light above him, a yellowy-white that bobbed in and out of his vision. Jonas lifted his arm to his head, running his fingers across his forehead, feeling for the cuts and bruises that the pain told him were there. He tried opening his eyes again, but the light was too strong, and he let them close. There were voices. Muffled sounds in the background, male and female voices almost whispering, too quiet for him to make out what was being said. Had they made it already? There was a female voice, but it didn’t sound like Dakota. It was too young, too high pitched. Freya? No, it wasn’t her. Janey?

“Water…please,” he managed to stutter out, hoping the distant voices would hear him. He heard a faint clattering noise, and then someone squeezed his hand.

“It’s okay, honey, I’m here.”

It sounded to Jonas like the voice was ethereal, floating in space somewhere above his head, not real. It felt like his body wasn’t attached to the ground, as if he were floating six feet above it. He tried to open his eyes again, but they refused to obey. A thin trickle of water passed his lips, and he gratefully sucked it down as more water was poured into his mouth. It was cool, refreshing - clean. They had made it. Something had happened while he’d been out. The others must have picked him up and carried on. God, how long had he been out? They’d only gone into the garage a moment ago, or at least that was what it seemed like. When the zombies had attacked, they weren’t prepared. Cliff hadn’t scoped the place out correctly. Something bad had gone down, he was sure of that, but what next? One minute the dead were pouring into the garage, the next he was…what? Had he been out so long that the others had managed to get all the way to Canada? He had so many questions.

Jonas brushed away the glass at his lips. “Janey, listen to me. I need to…”

“Shush. It’s okay, Jonas. Just rest.”

“I should’ve stayed. Erik was right. I’m sorry, Janey. What Dad did…I’m sorry.”

“Jonas, please just rest. Everything’s okay now.”

“Janey, I left you, and I wish I could take it back, but…I’m sorry, I…”

Jonas wanted to say more, to see his sister, to let her know that he still loved her. He had a lot of making up to do, he knew that. The main thing was that they were together again. How had she coped all this time on her own? The light filtering through his eyelids suddenly grew darker, and the woman’s hand holding his slipped away. Shooting stars filled his vision, and then the world went quiet. Unconsciousness pulled him back down, and Jonas heard nothing more as he slept.

*

The next time his eyes opened it was dark. He woke feeling hungry instantly, and Jonas licked his lips. His upper lip was swollen, and he knew eating was going to be painful.

“Dakota?”

Jonas tried to raise his head, but it felt like trying to lift a logging truck with nothing but his little finger. The darkness had begun to formulate shapes in the shadows. Somewhere out of his vision candles were flickering, illuminating the roof above his head in a dancing firelight. The roof above his head was no more than six feet away and seemed to be made of a plastic that was cracked and discolored. It curved away to the sides, and as he tried to turn his head to look at his surroundings, he felt his neck stiffen. Where was he? There were soft thumping noises approaching, and he stretched his fingers, feeling around for his axe. All he found were soft sheets and what felt like an armrest. The bed he lay in was comfortable, if a little small.

“Dakota?”

Jonas uttered her name quietly, fearful that he was someplace strange. Was Dakota even around? He didn’t recognize anything and suddenly felt very exposed. What if he’d been left behind? It felt like he’d been run over by a bus, so maybe the others had been forced to leave him behind? They might’ve tried to make it safe, but the truth was he could be anywhere right now. What if he was surrounded by a hundred hungry zombies? He had no way of protecting himself. He had no way of calling for help. Jonas tried to lift himself up from his bed, but sharp pangs of pain stung his body as he moved, particularly in his head, and he closed his eyes desperately trying not to black out. He needed to know where he was and if Dakota was safe.

A hand grabbed his, and instantly he jerked his eyes open.

“Jonas, honey, I’m here,” said Dakota as she rubbed his hand. “How’re you feeling?”

Jonas tried to speak, but he began coughing, and was thankful when Dakota held a glass to his lips. The cool water was beautiful, and he looked at his wife. She seemed to be fine. She was sporting a nasty bruise on the right side of her face, but otherwise she appeared to be fine. She was even smiling.

“Dakota, where are we? Are you okay? Are we…safe?”

“Yes. We’re safe here. You need to rest, Jonas. You need your sleep. I wanted to be here when you woke.”

Jonas let Dakota bring his hand up to her face, and he stroked her cheek.

“Honey, I’m sorry, I…I don’t remember. I don’t know what happened. Did we make it to Janey’s? Did everyone get out of the garage okay? Anna? Tyler? Is everyone here with you?”

Dakota’s smile cracked, and he could tell he had said the wrong thing. Her eyes looked away, and then the smile returned.

“Don’t worry, honey, we can talk in the morning. It’s important that you rest now, got it? The main thing is you’re okay.
I’m
okay.”

Despite what she said, he could tell she was lying. There was no chance of him going back to sleep without knowing if the others were okay?

“Dakota, tell me the truth. Is it the children? Freya and Mary are all right, aren’t they?”

Dakota looked over her shoulder as if checking they were alone. She leant in closer to him. “He said I shouldn’t tell you yet. He said it would be best if we waited, but…”