Revelations - 02 (39 page)

“Emily,” I struggled with the degree of honesty to put in this statement, “your daddy was…is a very smart, brave man. I haven’t seen him, but that doesn’t mean he’s not out there. And if he is, I’m certain he’ll find us. Find you.”

She was quiet for a few minutes, and I began to wonder if she was waiting for me to say more. Problem is, I didn’t have anything else.

“If you go out and find my daddy and he’s a zombie-monster?” Emily paused and looked up at me. “You’ll shoot him so he won’t eat any people, right? My daddy wouldn’t want to eat people, and I know if he is a zombie-monster, he’d be sad about eating people.”

I was stunned.

“I promise, Emily,” I said and kissed the little girl on her forehead.

“Thank you,” she said, and after a quick hug, she climbed down and ran back out to where all the happy conversation and laughter bounced off the walls.

I was suddenly very tired. I just wanted to close my eyes for a second.



“Steve,” Dr. Zahn’s voice sliced into my consciousness.

I sat up in a hurry and every part of my body protested. My neck felt like it was on fire. Sun filtered through the windows and I was still in the same chair. Couldn’t somebody have woke me up so I coulda slept in my bed…which was empty. Where the hell was Melissa?

“How many?” I groaned as I bent to pull on my dirty socks.
Disgusting
, I thought. They were stiff, and I could definitely smell them.

“Eight,” Dr. Zahn said, but there was something else in her voice.

“And?” I let the word hang. The doctor wasn’t the type to play games, I’m certain that if there was something that needed to be said, she’d—

“Three are bitten,”

“Great,” I sighed, and followed her out. The sun was already promising a real scorcher.

Standing in a group next to a large circle of gravel around the two barren flagpoles were the new arrivals. The first thing I noticed with no small sense of relief was that there weren’t any children. This was going to be hard enough. Three women, five men. One of the women had a nasty scratch on her left arm that was puffy and swollen. One of the men had his right hand wrapped up in dirty rags, and another had his right arm in a sling.

“Hi, folks.” I stepped out from under the overhang and down the couple of steps. All eyes turned my way. Teresa was holding one of the M4s, but had it pointed at the ground. Aaron was standing like some backwoods sheriff, hand on the grip of one of the pistols hanging from his hips. “Who’s in charge?”

“I guess that’d be me.” The man wearing the sling stepped forward. “Look, we don’t want any trouble. We’re just trying to find a place away from the roads. I used to come here when I was a kid and it seemed like a good possibility.”

“Looks like you ran into some trouble,” I said, nodding to his arm.

“We’d been staying at the Whitman orchard. It was off of the roads…seemed like a good choice. Made a run to La Grande when one of ours got sick. Made it in, hit a hospital without any casualties.” I heard a justifiable measure of pride in his voice. “Musta picked up a tail close to the Whitman place, because the morning after we got back…they were outside.”

“Had nineteen of us then,” another man spoke up, stepping beside the speaker. I could see a definite resemblance.

“How many of those things are on your tail now?” Barry asked. “How many did you lead here?”

I heard a few murmurs from my people. The newcomers shifted around nervously. I saw weapons of all sorts hanging off these people. I didn’t particularly want to get into a shoot-out first thing in the morning.

“We’ve been moving through the woods,” the first man spoke. “Last thing we wanted to do was bring those things to where we were hoping to make a new home.”

“That’s not really answering the question,” Barry pressed.

“Alright,” I raised my hands, “let’s not get into a big debate over—”

“This isn’t a debate,” Barry interrupted. “I’m asking if these people brought a bunch of zombies with them. You should be wondering that too if you’re so intent on keeping Thalia safe.”

“No!” The first man snapped. “We didn’t bring any with us. We’ve been in the woods the past several hours.”

“Then where’d your injuries come from?” Jamie asked.

Cripes!
I thought,
when did he show up?
“I thought you were on watch this morning?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Ian took my spot, he said he wanted to get right into the rotation.” Jamie moved to stand by Teresa.

“We don’t want any trouble,” the injured woman spoke. I turned to face her and felt my chest tighten.

Her eyes.

“And before you ask to stay, you should know that we have a policy about people who’re infected.” I couldn’t take my eyes off hers. The blackness seemed to be intensifying in them as I spoke.

“Policy?” the one that looked related to the man in the sling said with a nervous caution in his voice.

“He kills ‘em.”

Oh good,
I thought,
Lee’s awake.

Nervous murmurs rippled through the newcomers. I saw both the woman with the nasty gash on her arm and the black-tracer ridden eyes, and the man with the bandaged hand, shrink back into their crowd.

“Shot one a his own just the other day.” Lee walked down and into the midst of the group. “Right up behind him, and shot him in the head. No warning. Just…POW!” He made a gun with his finger and thumb, ‘firing’ it for emphasis.

“Lee,” Melissa walked down, casting me a glance that I couldn’t decipher, “Steve did what he had to. He kept Jack from having to go through the pain,”

“Yeah?” Lee challenged. “Well fuck that. I get bit, I wants me a choice.”

“You shot Jack?” Sunshine gasped.

When the hell did everybody show up?

“He was bitten…because of Lee,” Melissa said angrily.

“Enough!” I yelled. “We can get into this later. Right now, we need to deal with these folks and figure out what everybody’s gonna do.”

“My people would like to stay here,” the man with the sling announced. The one next to him—I was betting the brother

—started to say something, but was cut off. “And I can understand wanting to protect yours. The three of us will leave.”

There was some protesting among the man’s group, especially from the one I figured for his brother. Eventually though, it was decided.

“Mine, too,” the man said with a smile, extending his good hand. “Stephen Johnson…with a ph. The hot-head is my older brother, Jason. He’ll be okay, Just leave him be a few days. But if you give him a chance, he’s a helleva shot, a hard worker, and a bit inventive. It was his alarm system that woke us that day and allowed us to escape before they got too thick.”

“Melissa, Teresa, Aaron,” I called, “show these folks inside. Help ‘em get settled. Let ‘em pick out a place, but then we got work to do. The trench won’t dig itself. Plus, we need to decide who will make the next supply run.”

“Aren’t we going to discuss what
exactly
happened to Jack?” Sunshine asked angrily.

“Right this moment?” I turned to face her. “No.”

“Ain’t this some shit,” Lee said sarcastically.

“You want to leave with these three?” I challenged. “Let me make this clear.” I stepped up on the porch so I could see everybody. “This is a very limited democracy. That means I’ll leave certain things to the group. But, some decisions will be mine alone. My priority is to take care of Thalia and Emily. To that end, I will do
whatever
it takes to ensure their safety to the best of my ability. None of you are required to stay here. But…if you do, you’ll work, you’ll contribute, and you stay with the understanding that if you are bitten…I will be the one to put you down. If you have a problem with any of that…you can leave. Now.”

Silence.

I scanned everybody. I saw the nods of support and approval from Barry, Randi, Teresa…all my original group. Sunshine and Chloe were communicating through sign, but once they were done, Chloe turned to me and nodded. Sunshine gave me a long stare, but she didn’t look like she’d be leaving. Fiona and her group clustered together, and I could see Lee gesturing wildly, but in the end, she turned and nodded. That left Stephen and his newcomers.

They were whispering quietly, amongst themselves. I saw a show of hands, but didn’t know what they were voting on. Finally, Jason turned.

“We’ll stay. My brother, Annie, and Greg will leave.” Stephen nudged his brother. “But my little brother wants a brief, private meeting between him and you.”

“Done.” I nodded.

I stepped down and motioned for Stephen to follow me. I walked to the picnic area and sat down at a table. The other man sat across from me. I was a bit sad that the man couldn’t join us. He was about my height, five-nine-ish, but easily two-fifty. His arms were huge, and he looked like he could bench press a Volkswagon.

“Listen,” the man put up his hands, gesturing for me to calm down, “those things…I’ve been payin’ attention. Sometimes, they do stuff. I can’t really explain it good, but my worry is that when I die and turn, I’ll come back here. And I might have a bunch with me.”

“You can call me, Stephen, I think since I’m asking you to kill me and two friends that we can be on a first-name basis with one another.”

“But why?”

“I don’t want to be one of…
those things
. And, I don’t want to bring a mob of ‘em back here, ruinin’ your set-up,” Stephen explained. “Also, I don’t want Jason to see you put a bullet in my head. No matter the reason…it’ll never settle right with him. You got your hands full enough with that Lee character. Difference between him and my brother, Jason isn’t just a buncha talk. He gets hot and it’ll turn to bullets.”

“You aint exactly inspiring me to keep him around,” I said.

“Right now…he sees that he owes you.” Stephen folded his big hands on the table. I looked him in the eyes and was struck by something.

No black tracers.

His eyes were dark brown. The whites were clear of any sign of the infection, unlike the woman. I guess it’s like any other illness. Some go down quicker than others. I wondered if his being so big, and obviously in shape, had anything to do with his slower rate of deterioration.

“Owes me for what?” I asked, forcing myself back to the conversation.

“Takin’ our folks in like you are,” Stephen explained. “Jason used to run with a bit of a gang. He still holds some of their ideas in his head. Mostly about loyalty and stuff.”

“Former gang member,” Stephen corrected me. “Look, you and I know that there is strength in numbers. And believe it or not we’re a lot alike. We both got people we need to take care of. And we’ll do whatever it takes to see it through. I’m asking you to follow me out and put me down so I don’t endanger your people.”

“The girl that’s hurt…Annie…she’s our sister. If it was just me and Greg, I wouldn’t blink,” the man’s voice had quieted to a whisper, “but I already had to put my folks down…and a son…and a wife. I can’t do it again. And if I just off myself, I know me…I’ll tell myself that I can beat it all the way to the point where I turn.”

“Do Annie first.” He placed a gun on the table. It had a silencer! Well, that took care of my last concern, which was how far the sounds of gunfire carried these days.

We shook hands.



I saw them up ahead, sitting on a downed log. Their backs were to me. Stephen was handing a water bottle to Annie. Both she and Greg looked horrible. Even from here I could see the sickly hue of their skin. But Stephen still looked fine.

Taking a look around, I smiled. He’d led his group to a small clearing by a stream. I could walk almost all the way up to them and remain hidden. That stream would allow me to move without worrying about every single noise. Plus, Stephen was talking…although I doubt those two were hearing much. They both looked completely out of it.