Zombie Rules (Book 3): ZFINITY (24 page)

“This is what happens next,” Fred said casually. “I’m going to ask you a few questions and you’re going to give me truthful answers.”

“You can go fuck yourself, you cocksucker,” Anthony retorted and spit out a mouthful of blood. Some of it hit Fred’s boots. Fred grunted.

“Somehow, I knew you were going to be difficult, but I’ve got a remedy.”

Anthony looked up at Fred suspiciously. “What’s that?” he asked.

“Torture,” Fred said plainly. “From the looks of the injuries on Jessica, you have a good idea what’s about to happen.”

Anthony spit out some more blood and then looked up at Fred. “Fuck you, old man.” he snarled. His snarl turned to uncertainty as Fred retrieved a knife from a sheath on his belt and locked the blade open.

“Here’s what is going to happen next. You are going to answer every question I ask you truthfully. If I don’t like the way you answer something, I’m going to work on you with this here knife,” Fred looked at his knife and emitted a short chuckle.

“I bet I know what you’re thinking right about now. You’ve watched all of those idiotic TV shows where the bad person threatens to do something but never has a chance to follow through before the cavalry comes in,” Fred squatted down beside him before continuing. “Son, nobody is coming to rescue you.”

Fred dropped a knee onto Anthony’s chest, pressing down with his weight, grabbed one of his ears, and began slicing. Anthony’s screams of agony echoed through the vacant neighborhood.

It was a good two hours before Fred returned. I was murderously angry with him for the first thirty minutes of his absence. The next thirty minutes I was mentally rehearsing the cussing out I was going to give him. As the next hour slowly ticked by, my anger faded. I regaled myself impatiently to pacing in the yard. When he opened the door and got out of the truck, I immediately noticed the bloodstains on his clothing. He walked directly to one of the rockers on the porch and sat. I sat in the adjacent chair and waited. Neither of us spoke for at least ten minutes until I realized it was going to have to be me who would have to break the silence.

“The women are inside. They woke up Jessica long enough to get some soup in her and then she went right back to sleep. Rhonda is going back to the church whenever you decide to hand over the spark plug wires, but Wanda is going to stay here. I told her you said it would be an honor for her to sleep in your bed.” I looked at him with a smirk and waited for some type of reaction, but he didn’t even arch an eyebrow at me.

“So,” I continued, “both of us are going to be sleeping in the den, unless of course you feel like snuggling up next to her every night.”

Fred rocked slowly but still said nothing. I waited a couple more minutes before speaking again.

“Are you going to tell me what the hell happened?”

Wanda walked outside at that moment with her usual scowl. I made eye contact with her and motioned for her to sit down. “Fred was just about to tell me about his encounter with Anthony, weren’t you, Fred?”

“Yep.”

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” she demanded. Fred took a deep breath.

“The first woman he raped and murdered happened about four years ago back in Huntsville. After the outbreak, he murdered two of the men in their group, raped their wives, and murdered them. He said he’s been a good boy since then, his words not mine. He thought he had gotten it out of his system, but when he saw the Thompson women, he said he couldn’t help himself. He planned it out and waited for the right opportunity,” he paused for a minute and breathed deeply.

“He described all of the things he did to them, which I won’t bother going into. When Janine escaped, he said he spent all of his spare time looking for her, but as far as he knows, she’s gone; maybe eaten by zombies. Anyway, he was going to keep Jessica alive until he had the opportunity to catch someone else,” he glanced over at me. “Kelly and Julie were his next targets.”

I nodded somberly and could only imagine what he had done to Anthony in order to illicit this information. I had no intention of asking for details, but Wanda had other ideas.

“How did you get him to talk?” She asked. Fred slowly shook his head. The dried blood was the only indicator of violence, but it was clear he was not going to discuss the details.

“Well, you at least killed him, right?” she pressed.

“Yes,” Fred answered. Wanda stared at Fred for a few seconds, trying to browbeat him into telling her more. Finally, she scoffed.

“That poor girl is going to be scarred for life,” she said.

“Was anyone else involved?” I asked. Fred shook his head.

“Alright, I think you need to get out of those clothes and get cleaned up. Then we need to pay a visit to the school and tell them all about this.”

Fred got up without a word and walked inside.

“I didn’t know he had it in him,” Wanda commented idly.

“Never underestimate him,” I responded.

“Since I’ll be staying here, Rhonda is going to pack some of my stuff for y’all to bring back.”

“No problem. May I make a suggestion? I think she should be moved to my house first thing in the morning. Not only is there is plenty of room, Julie and Andie can help out.”

Wanda looked sidelong at me. “Why did you move out?”

“Julie and I are having some issues. She can tell you all about it if she wants to.”

Wanda nodded in seeming understanding. “Well, I’d say your suggestion is a good one, but I don’t like Julie’s mother one bit. The two of us are liable to butt heads at every turn.”

I smiled at the thought. “I certainly hope so.”

I had radioed ahead and everyone was gathered out front when the three of us drove into the parking lot. Carla walked up to Fred immediately as he exited the minivan.

“I thought Anthony was with you?” she asked.

“Where is Wanda?” Benny asked Rhonda. I answered for her.

“Wanda is at Fred’s house. She’s going to be staying with us for a few days.”

“Why?” Tonya asked, “You didn’t answer Carla, where is my brother?”

Fred looked over at me and gave one of his subtle dips of the head. I cleared my throat.

“We have something to tell all of you that will not be very pleasant. We’ve found Jessica,” I paused and there were some murmurs of confusion.

“Wait,” Gus said, “I thought they had packed up and moved on.”

“We all believed it, but it wasn’t true. You see, Geoffrey was murdered and the two women were kidnapped. They were chained up in a shed where they were tortured and raped,” I paused a moment to let it sink in. Benny started to ask a question but I held up a hand.

“As some of you know, for the past three days, I’ve been roaming around in this area hunting zombies. This morning I happened to see Anthony walking out of a shed, padlocking it behind him. When I had a look-see, I found Jessica chained to the floor, naked, starving, and with several injuries that had been done to her over the course of a few weeks. She confirmed it was Anthony who did it.”

Everyone was stunned. Tonya, Anthony’s older sister, was now trembling uncontrollably. Carla was motionless and her face was ashen.

“So, you’re saying Anthony murdered Geoffrey, and then kidnapped and raped the two Thompson women?” Benny asked.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Liar!” Tonya suddenly shouted. “Where is Anthony?” she demanded.

“Dead,” I replied. “It should interest you to know, before he died, he also admitted to murdering four people who were with your group.”

Tonya stared at me balefully while Carla held her hand to her mouth and ran inside.

“I make no apologies for Anthony’s death. If any of you have anything to say, go ahead and get it out of your system.”

There was a minute or two of silence before Benny spoke.

“I’m very confused, I’m wondering why you killed Anthony.”

I think I frowned and glanced at Fred. There was no response from him. “Well now, you have me confused, Benny. I just told you what he had done, what would you have liked for us to do, give him a blue ribbon?”

Benny shook his head quickly. “What I’m trying to say is this; you people have talked about creating a civilized society, but vigilante justice has no place in such a society. Anthony was entitled to due process.”

“Fair enough,” Fred said. “Next time, we’ll have a fair trial before we hang him.” He glanced at me momentarily. “I’m ready to go.” He walked back to the truck without a backward glance. I hurriedly got a suitcase from Rhonda and jumped in the truck before Fred left without me.

I was sitting beside the bed when Jessica woke up. She looked at me sleepily and was frightened momentarily until recognition dawned on her.

“Good morning,” I said cheerily.

“Hi,” she replied hoarsely, “how long have I been asleep?”

“Off and on, I’d say about fourteen hours. Wanda says you’re doing a lot better. She’s in the kitchen fixing breakfast. If you’re hungry, I’ll get you a plate, or I can carry you into the kitchen and you can join us.”

After a moment she nodded. “I think I’d like that.”

I waited in the hallway while Wanda helped her get dressed and then carried her to the kitchen. She was light as a feather and I guessed she only weighed about seventy pounds.

“Fred ate an early breakfast and is out working on the farm,” I said, “so it’s just the three of us.” I set a plate in front of her.

“Wanda has gotten pretty decent at making bread, so how about some eggs and toast?” I asked.

“I don’t think I can eat very much.”

“No problem, eat what you can, go slowly, and when you’ve had enough you can stop,” I smiled at her reassuringly. “Look, we even have milk now,” I pointed at the pitcher of cool milk. “Fred had a pasteurizer, but it was destroyed in a fire. Konya, I don’t think you’ve met him, anyway, Konya and Rowdy went out scavenging the other day and they found a couple at an abandoned farm gathering dust.”

“What’s a pasteurizer?” she asked. “Is it one of those cow milking machines?”

I smiled and explained. “No. Milk is a great medium for microbial growth, so you use a pasteurizer which kills the microbes and gives it a longer shelf life.”

“Oh. So, you have to milk a cow the old fashioned way.”

I nodded. “Yep. Milking a cow means the cow has to develop a level of trust before she’ll let you pull on her udders without kicking you, so I had to spend more than a few evenings wooing her in order to win her over,” I said with a grin.

She rolled her eyes at me, much the same way Julie and Macie always did, picked up the glass and took a sip. For the first time since I found her, I saw a pleasant, almost beatific expression cross her face.

“It’s wonderful! I haven’t had a glass of real milk in forever.”

I glanced at Wanda as the two of us watched her nibble at her breakfast. Wanda sat down beside her and encouraged her to eat. She only took a couple of bites before she pushed the plate aside.

“I’m sorry, I can’t eat anymore,” she said apologetically.

“No worries at all,” I replied, “you ate more than I expected. You’re going to be back to one-hundred percent in no time.”

Wanda stood. “I think I’m going to get a hot bath ready for you, how does that sound?”

Jessica smiled. “It sounds wonderful.”

Fred walked in the door and began fixing a fresh plate of eggs as Wanda and I helped Jessica walk to the bathroom. He had it cleaned by the time I walked back in.

“Chow hound,” I said with a grin. He grunted and finished off his glass of milk. I heard a vehicle approaching, but before I could look out the window, Fred spoke up.

“That would be Julie and the gang,” he said. My good mood evaporated. Our last encounter didn’t go so well and I had the feeling it was going to turn out the same way today. I stood and waited. She walked in a minute later carrying little Frederick. Rowdy, Terry, and Andie followed. My son’s big blue eyes spotted me and he squealed in delight. I couldn’t help but smile as I took him from her arms and gave him a big hug.

“How’ve you been big guy?” I asked. He had no idea what I said, but it didn’t keep him from grabbing my nose and squeezing. I looked at Julie then. She stared at me, but damned if I could read what she was thinking.

“How are you?” I finally asked.

“Okay,” she responded without a lot of emotion, “how about you?”

I looked at Frederick. “I’m better now.”

There was a moment of awkward silence. Rowdy finally cleared his throat. “Say, Hoss, would it be okay if we say hi to Jessica?”

“I think she’d like that, but Wanda is the person to ask,” I looked around. Wanda had come down the hall and was staring at everyone with her sour puss scowl. She was looking especially hard at Rowdy. Rowdy repeated his request. Wanda narrowed her eyes.

“I think it’d be good for her, don’t you?” I asked her before she retorted. She held the scowl on Rowdy for a long five seconds, but finally relented.

“She’s taking a bath at the moment. Everyone will have to wait until she’s ready to get out.”

“I’ve brought some clothes over,” Julie said. Terry handed over a duffel bag. Wanda took the bag, looked inside and gave a sniff.

“I’ll get her fixed up first, and when I say it’s time to go, you’ll leave immediately. No arguments. Do I make myself clear?” she watched as everyone obediently nodded.

“Good,” she gave one last scowl and disappeared down the hall.

Fred’s den was small. The house was built for functionality, not for luxury, so it was a little cramped with all of us in there. I caught Julie looking at me.

“I’m going to sit outside with the big guy, you want to join me?” I asked. She nodded tentatively and followed me outside. We sat in the rocking chairs, avoiding eye contact, neither of us sure of what to say. She noticed the table, touched it, and saw how wobbly it was. She chuckled.

“Who the hell made this table, you?”

“Tommy and Joe,” I replied quietly. Her derisive chuckle stopped immediately. “They were fooling around with Fred’s tools one day and he found them some scrap wood to experiment with.”

“Fred was good to them,” she said after a moment. I nodded in agreement.

“Yes he was. He blames himself for what happened and the two of you have never talked about it.”

“It wouldn’t do any good.”

“Sure it would. We’re all family after all.”

“You abandoned your family,” she accused. I frowned.

“I hear your mother’s voice when you say things like that.”

“It’s true.”

“Okay, let’s say it’s true. I want to hear you say
why
you think I abandoned my family,” I challenged. She stared at me insolently, but only for a second before dropping her eyes. I sighed. “You can’t bring yourself to say it, or you refuse to acknowledge how you’ve treated me ever since the accident.”

“How have I treated you, Zach?”

“Like shit,” I retorted. “Lately, you’ve treated me like shit. After the accident, you moped around, depressed and sad. I’d try to help, but you’d react as though I was a stranger to you, which did nothing but make me miserable. You’ve shut me out, even though I’m supposedly the man you’ve professed your undying love to. Then, when your mom moved in, it got twice as bad. The only reason I consented to it was because I thought it’d help things out between you and me, but no, it got worse. The final straw was when you blamed me for their deaths for God’s sake,” I looked over at her but she refused to make eye contact.

“That was a very cruel thing to do. Until you realize how wrong it was to blame me for something I had absolutely no control over…” I left the rest unfinished and filled the silence by playing with Frederick.

“So, are you going to hook up with someone else, Kelly, or Jessica maybe?”

I looked at her in astonishment. “Julie, I love
you
, not Kelly, not Jessica, only you.”

“She looks so much like Macie,” she muttered.

“I’m in love with you,” I repeated.

“How did you find her?” she finally asked. Don’t think I didn’t notice how she changed the subject. I thought for a moment to point it out, didn’t do it, and explained the events leading up to the discovery. When I was finished, she reached over and grabbed my hand. I squeezed without realizing it.

“You saved her life,” she said, pointing out the obvious.

“I think it would be good if she came to live with us,” I said, and then corrected myself. “I mean, if she came to live with you and Andie. Being around women her own age would be good for her I think.”

“Are you going to come back home?” she asked, after a minute.

“Are you still in love with me, Julie?” I asked.

“Do you even need to ask?”

“I think I do, the last time I heard you say those three words has been a long time. You couldn’t even say them just now.”

I could see the expression on her face change. First it was anger, and then realization. It was a long moment before she replied.

“I haven’t been myself lately.” She said quietly.

I waited for her to explain, but after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, I realized she was not going to. I sighed.

“I miss the two of you terribly, but there are two things that need to happen if I am to move back,” I responded. Julie remained silent, but at least she looked at me now.

“The first thing is, I want my old Julie back. Not the Julie who has been so cold to me lately, criticizing everything I do and blaming me for things I have no control over.”

“What is the second thing?” she asked.

“Your mom has to go,” I said. Her eyebrows furrowed and she stared at me as if I had made some type of disparaging remark.

“We’ve come a long way since she moved back in.”

“I disagree. She does nothing but manipulates and plants the seeds of discord between the two of us. She’s jealous of us and covets what we had, and now, she has it. She has our house, farm, food, her daughter, everything you and I worked so hard to build, everything she was incapable of achieving on her own.”

“She said you’d try to turn me against her,” she quipped.

“I’m the one who got you two back together, or don’t you remember that? Did she twist that fact around too? By the way, did she tell you what she said when we met on the bridge back in January? Where’s the whore, that’s what she said.”

“You’re lying,” she said coldly.

I stared hard at her. “You know better than that. Oh, did you ever talk to Tommy, and did he tell you that Janet told him you were dead?” I waited for a response, but got none. “So, we’re still at an impasse here.”

I waited for her to say something, anything, but she didn’t. “Well, I still love you.”

She looked at the ground briefly before making eye contact, but before she could say anything we were interrupted by Terry walking outside.

“Hey, guys, I hate to break it up, but Jessica said she’d really like to see you,” he said, gesturing at Julie.

“Go ahead,” I said, “Terry and I will keep little Rick amused.”

Terry took over the chair when Julie went inside. “So, how’d it go?” he asked.

I shrugged as I bounced my son. “It could have been better. Looks like I’m still staying here with Fred. How’s it going on the home front?”

“Not too bad. No zombie encounters. We’ve been doing the chores, which by the way, I think Rowdy has just now realized how much of the work you were doing before you moved out.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to leave y’all high and dry. I’ll be over first thing in the morning and start helping out again.”

“Oh,” Terry said suddenly, “I don’t think anyone has told you, we’ve finally got the old homestead fixed up. Rowdy and I moved in yesterday.”

“Awesome.” I replied. I tried to smile, but couldn’t.

“Yeah, Konya and his dogs have been staying with us too, but he’s been looking around,” he then snickered and lowered his voice. “Oh, and this is between you and me, Rowdy has been putting the wood to Janet.”

I perked up. “No shit?” I asked. Terry nodded.

“The two of them think they’re being sneaky. They’ve been having a regular late night rendezvous in the tour bus.”

“He has no idea what he’s got himself into,” I said, shaking my head. “Poor Rhonda.”

“Oh, he’s still wooing Rhonda whenever he gets a chance,” Terry said with a chortle.

“What is it with you two?” I asked. “You’ve got to chase every piece of tail around?”

“Yeah, well I guess we can’t help ourselves. So, Carla is single now?”

I glanced at him uncertainly and realized he was only half joking. “Yeah, but I don’t know how what her frame of mind is at the moment. She certainly has no warm and fuzzy feelings toward Fred and me,” I thought for a minute and stared at him until we had direct eye contact.

“Jessica is off limits,” I declared and pointed at him before he responded. “Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you’re a bad guy, I happen to think the world of you, but hell’s bells, she went through a very traumatic episode. The last thing she needs is for some horny bastard trying to add her as a notch on their belt.”

“You got that right,” Fred added. He had walked around from the back of the house and had been listening in. “That little girl is officially under my protection. You boys should get the word out to everyone.”

I looked at Terry with an expectant stare and could see the message was received. He nodded curtly in acknowledgement. The girls walked out then, effectively ending our conversation. Julie gave me a long look.

“I guess we should get back home,” she said.