This Shattered Land - 02 (27 page)

“Can
I see?” Brian said.

“Sure,
here you go.” He took the binoculars and looked toward the hill.

“Thank
God.” He said.  

“Told
you so.” I reached down and ruffled the kid’s hair. “Come on, let’s get
cooking. They’re probably going to be hungry when they get here.”

Sarah
broke out the cast iron skillet and started mixing up some flatbread while I
put the pot over the fire to heat water for a stew. Brian found a large can of
new potatoes in the hostel’s kitchen, as well as some crushed tomatoes. I
poured them into the pot along with some dried venison, beans, and wild onion,
then left them to simmer. It did not take long for the onions and venison to
start pouring out aroma. My stomach growled in anticipation.

About
fifteen minutes later, Tom and Eric arrived and wearily dropped their packs in
the hostel’s foyer before grabbing chairs and taking seats with us around the
fire. I could tell something was wrong by their body language. Especially Eric,
he seemed unusually subdued.

“Something
bothering you?” I asked, turning from the stew pot to look at him.

“Been
a hell of a day.” He replied.

Eric
has bright, attentive blue eyes that are constantly absorbing his surroundings,
taking things in and cataloguing them. Normally, he exudes an aura of confidence
and intelligence. He is the kind of man that doesn’t just stand on a piece of
ground, he plants his feet and claims it. It’s one of the reasons we became
friends; I respect his grit. Today, however, he seemed strangely distant and
cold. Like the gears that normally turn in his head had slowed down to a crawl,
grinding and sputtering against one another. Rather than exuding his usual
verve and assurance, he seemed haunted and morose. I had seen him like this
before, and I knew it took a lot to get him there.

“Is
my mind playing tricks on me in my advancing years, or did I see a Henry repeater
tied up to your pack?” I said.

Eric
nodded silently. I waited a few beats for him to say something, but nothing was
forthcoming. I let him be for a few minutes. If he wanted to talk about
whatever was bothering him, he would get around to it in his own time. I let
the stew boil and thicken until it was ready to eat. Brian fetched us some
spoons and bowls, and began ladling it out.

“You’ll
never believe what happened to us today.” Tom said as he leaned forward to take
his dinner from Brian.

“What’s
that?” Sarah asked. She had been watching the two of them with concern for the
last little while.

“We
got attacked by a bear.”

That
one stopped me. Of all the things he could have said, a bear attack was the
last one I would have expected.

“Oh
my God,” Sarah said, “are you okay?”

Tom
smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine thanks to this guy. Things didn’t turn out so good for
the bear though, poor thing.”

“Bears
don’t usually attack people.” I said. “Did you guys surprise it or something?”

“It
was a mother with cubs.” Eric said, not looking up from the fire.

We
were all silent for a moment. Eric has always had a bit of a soft spot for
animals, especially wildlife. Shooting a mother bear and orphaning her cubs is
as good as killing the lot of them. No wonder he was acting so maudlin. I don’t
personally advocate killing things unnecessarily, but if I have to put a bullet
in some furry critter’s head to stay alive, I’m not going to cry in my soup
over it.

“Well,
that explains it.” I said.

Tom
gave us the details of what happened. It was a good thing that Eric went full
auto on the poor creature, otherwise things might not have turned out so well.

“Eric,
for what it’s worth, you did what you had to do.” I said, after Tom finished
his story. “It’s not your fault that the bear came after you. Anyone else would
have done the same thing in your place.”

My
friend looked up at me for a moment, and then heaved a sigh.

“I
know, I know. You’re right. It just sucks, you know? If only we had walked a
little farther down the road before stopping.”

“You
can’t predict when things like this are going to happen.” I replied. “You
remembered your training, you reacted the right way, and you’re alive because
of it. Don’t forget that.”

He
nodded. A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed.

 “This
stew is really good.” Eric said, finally. “Mind if I get seconds?”

He
held up his bowl. I ladled more food into it and handed it back to him.

“So
what about you guys.” He said. “Run into any trouble today?”

Brian
and I looked at each other and laughed. “Yeah, a little bit. Had to deal with a
few walkers.”

I
told him about the horde that followed us, and the fight that ensued. Both Eric
and Tom looked at Brian with newfound respect when they heard how he handled
himself against the undead. While I talked, a troubled look stole across Eric’s
face and he sat back in his chair, the half-eaten bowl of stew forgotten in his
lap. It was a couple of minutes before he spoke again.

“You
know, if you guys attracted that many infected this far out into the sticks,
what’s going to happen when we leave the high country?” He said. “I mean, the
population density in western Tennessee before the Outbreak was higher than
around here. There will be a hell of a lot more undead where we’re going.”

“We’ll
be out of gas and on foot by then.” I replied.

“Right,
but what about between now and then? Are we just going to have to fight a horde
every single day?”

“I
don’t like it any more than you,” I said, “but we really don’t have much
choice.”

“We
might not be able to avoid fighting the undead, but we can control how many
people we have available to do it.”

“Eric,
we can only fit two adults and Brian in the MUV. We’ve been over this.”

“That’s
in
the vehicle, Gabe, not behind it.”

“So
what, you going to ride on the cart? Do you realize how incredibly
uncomfortable that will be, not to mention how much more fuel it will cost us?”

Eric
gave me a level stare. “Yes. It will suck, but it will get us where we need to
be a hell of a lot faster without sacrificing safety in numbers. If today
taught us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t split up anymore. We’ll be a lot
better off sticking together.”

I
mulled it over for a moment, and I had to admit that he was right. I’m getting
too damn old to fight big swarms of infected by myself, and it bothered me how
close Eric had come to being bear food. There were too damned many things that
could go wrong at any given time. We stood a better chance of surviving if we stayed
together and didn’t divide our resources.  

“Okay,
fine. Tomorrow, you drive.” I pointed a finger at Eric. “It’s only fair for me
to take the first turn on the trailer, given that I drove today. Brian, you’ll
ride in the same spot. Tom, Sarah, you’re just gonna have to fight it out over
which one of you is gonna be choking down exhaust fumes with me tomorrow.”

 “Me.”
Tom said without hesitation. “I’m not making my wife ride back there. The three
of us will take turns driving. Eric, then me, then you. Deal?”

I
nodded approval. “Fair enough.”

“What
if I want to drive?” Sarah said.

I
shrugged. “Fine by me. We’ll add you to the rotation.”

“But
you do not ride on the trailer. Even at the end of the world, a man has to
treat his lady right.” Tom said, smiling.

Sarah
laughed and kissed him on the cheek. I looked away. I didn’t want to be jealous
of Tom, I had no right to be, but damn if I wasn’t. Out of the corner of my
eye, I saw Eric watching me. His eyes narrowed, and his mouth turned down a
little at the corners.

“Well
folks, if everybody is done eating, I’m going to get this mess cleaned up.” I
said.

I
carried a few buckets of water up from the creek and used them to wash the
dishes. Tom and Eric took advantage of the opportunity to bathe and wash the
clothes they had worn on the road. Sarah sat down at a table in the hostel
dining room to clean our guns for us. By the time everyone was finished, the
sun was low behind the trees atop the surrounding peaks. Night falls quickly in
the high country, so after making sure that all our gear was stowed and ready
to go on a moment’s notice, I asked Eric if he wanted the first watch. He
accepted. Tom volunteered to take second watch. That put me on duty from four
in the morning until sunrise. Brian asked if he could join me, but I turned him
down. I told him that it was more important for him to rest, but truth be told,
I just wanted to be alone. I needed time to think.

We
stayed up long enough for darkness to fall before turning in for the night. The
warmth of the day faded quickly in the sun’s absence, and the air soon grew damp
and cold. I grabbed a spare wool blanket out of my pack to fend off the chill
while I slept, and took a room on the second floor at the end of the hall. Eric
claimed a room across from me next door to Brian. When I checked in on him
before turning in for the night, he had pulled up a chair next to a window overlooking
the front parking lot, his right hand resting comfortably on his assault rifle.

“You
good to go, bud?” I asked, leaning on one hand against the doorframe.

He
looked over and nodded. “Yep. I’m good. Get some sleep, man. Long day ahead
tomorrow.”

I
hesitated a moment before leaving. “You know, if you want to talk about what
happened with the bear today…”

Eric
laughed. “I’ll be alright, Gabe. I was a little bummed out earlier, but I’ll
get over it. Speaking of, is there anything
you
would like to talk about?”

His
smile faded as he spoke, and his expression darkened a fraction into a knowing
stare. Despite the fact that I stand a head taller than my friend, and outweigh
him by over sixty pounds, I found myself shifting uncomfortably under that
damned calculating gaze.

“Don’t
know what you mean.”

His
eyes narrowed. “Mmm-hmm. Right.”

“Well,
I’ll see you in the morning.” I said.

Eric
smirked at me and waved a mock salute. I scowled as I turned away and stalked
back to my room.

The
sheets on my bed were crisp and cool, and they smelled like sunshine and a warm
breeze. Or maybe it was just the detergent Sarah washed them in. Either way, it
was nice. As usual, I only took off my boots and my weapons. Sleeping in my
clothes would allow me to get up and be ready to move out quickly if need be.
My Falcata and pistol rested on a table within arm’s reach, just in case. I
laid down on the comfortable bed and stared at my sword under the dim moonlight
filtering in through the window. I could lose all my other possessions, but as
long as I had a good blade and the means to make fire, I could survive just
about anything.

I
closed my eyes and let weariness take over. Alone in the dark, I kept seeing
Sarah’s face. Those beautiful eyes, and the little dimples in her cheeks when
she smiled. I kept telling myself that no good could come of such thoughts, but
they came on anyway. It was with a heavy heart and a worried mind that I
drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 10

Hog Teeth

The
second day of the trip started out much easier for me than the first. All I had
to do was drive slowly and make sure that I didn’t throw Tom and Gabriel off
the trailer. On the longer, straighter stretches of road, I could go pretty close
to twenty miles an hour so long as I dodged the innumerable potholes that
dotted the empty highway threatening to destroy my tires at any given moment. That
being said, the straight stretches of road were few and far between. Most of
the roads to Tennessee wound and snaked over hills and valleys in meandering,
unpredictable lines. We lost a good deal of time at one point when we were
forced to stop at the crumbling edge of what had once been a bridge over a
broad, swift flowing tributary. Gabe and I stood for a few moments looking down
into the muddy brown water as if we could bring the bridge back by staring at
it long enough.

“Well,
looks like we have to find another way around.” Gabe said, shading his eyes
with one hand and squinting at the other side of the empty span.

I
snorted. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

Gabe
shot me a glare, then turned on his heel and walked back to the Honda. I spit
over the edge and cursed my shitty luck. An hour later, we finally got back on
track and continued east following back roads that paralleled Interstate 40. During
the Outbreak, a massive flood of people fleeing the hordes of ravenous undead
choked every major interstate highway that ran across the entire breadth of the
eastern seaboard.

Gabe
and I had ventured out to survey the highway that first winter afterward, and
discovered a long, snaking wasteland of walkers, crashed vehicles, dead bodies,
and flaming destruction. We saw signs of fighting not just between the living
and the undead, but amongst the survivors who were trying to flee. Back then,
there were enough panicked, desperate people still running around to cause problems
for us if they ever found our cabin, so we decided to stay away from major
highways whenever possible. Anyone who survived that first winter had left the
interstate behind a long time ago, but large hordes of ghouls still roamed among
the wreckage. As much as I would have liked to use it, I-40 belonged to the
dead. Besides, Gabe’s plan for reaching Colorado involved following railways rather
than roads once we ran out of fuel for the MUV.