Barren Fields (13 page)

“Could I offer something about the space issue?” Mike Sawyer asks.

“Please go ahead, Mike. I’d be more upset if you had a good idea and didn’t tell us.”

Mike is sitting next to Hannah again. It seems that they like each other quite a bit. Probably just because there aren’t as many people of the same age alive these days, but I will still have to keep an eye on them. 

“Why not just clear out more of the forest for land? We are going to have to clear a bunch for firewood anyway, so we can clear acres of land and start using it for crops.”

His point is clear and obvious. One that any of us should have seen, but didn’t, probably because we’re so used to things remaining as they are. Several people laugh at his point, and he sits down, embarrassed, thinking he said something wrong.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Mike. They’re laughing because your idea is clearly the obvious one that we all should have seen. Good job. Isaac, instead of keeping your and my groups technically split, we can clear out the woods between the farm and the ranch first so one day we can pull everyone together and unite the land.”

Isaac nods, and Simone walks back in with a new problem. “The pools are filling and some of the Stick People are already bathing or being helped to bathe, but we don’t have enough towels or clothes, not even for this first group.”

“Jeremiah can help with that, Simone,” I say. “When he and Isaac went back for the rest of their people I asked him to grab as many towels and sets of clothing from the store that they could fit in their trucks. Everything they brought is still loaded so we can grab it now, although I imagine it might be mixed up a bit.”

She gives me a surprised look at my insight, and I offer, “I didn’t think we would send the semi-trucks back to the store today for a second supply run, and I knew we would need it. We should probably break up this meeting and help out with getting everyone cleaned and fixed up.”

“Great, let’s go,” she says, and everyone stands up to start the simple, yet tedious, task of helping the former captives start feeling human again.

“I don’t remember you asking for towels and clothes?” Isaac asks in an odd questioning tone.

“It was a last minute thought before your group was leaving. I told Jeremiah...” I hesitate because I think he didn’t get what I asked for. “Did you guys grab any towels or clothes?”

“No. My brother...” Isaac says accusingly, and points at Jeremiah, “said when we arrived at the store that you said we should grab whatever was left in the pharmacy area, so we loaded up what was there and came back.”

“I thought the leftover vitamins and medications would be more helpful to have than towels and clothes.”

“Eddie, I need to get back to the pools to help out. Figure this out,” she says firmly, pointing between Isaac, Jeremiah, and me. “Everyone else that can help, follow me. I’ll give you a job to do.” Then she walks off, clearly upset.

“What exactly did Eddie tell you?” Isaac asks Jeremiah.

“He said they were all set for most supplies but needed any towels and clothes that we could grab.” Jeremiah looks at me, and says, “I didn’t see why we would need towels and clothes and thought you were trying to make a point of sending me out for something useless.”

The three of us stand there awkwardly for a few seconds exchanging various expressions of frustration, embarrassment, and anger.

“Fine,” I say. “Check with Randy at the house to make sure Simone grabbed all of the towels already, after that, you’ll have to scavenge through your groups belongings to try and come up with enough. That means some of your people will have to wait until tomorrow to bathe.”

“I can already tell you we didn’t bring any towels,” Isaac offers. “We told everyone to pack light and move out quick, not that we had a lot of supplies at our place anyway. Our property isn’t a permanent living location for most of our group. It’s our camping and hunting property, and we were not set up for long term survival. Our plan after getting here was to return to our homes over the next week and bring whatever personal items that we can. Most of us lived in or around Grants Pass,” he says finishing his thoughts.

“I’ll send a group of men back to the store now to get what we need,” Jeremiah says, turning to walk off.

“It’s too late for that, Jeremiah. It’s already getting dark. You’re not sending anybody out there now or you’ll be sending them to their death. Just get some of your people together and go in my house to grab whatever clothes of ours that you can, so the survivors have something clean to put on when they’re finished washing up.”

I turn and walk toward the riding barn, and Isaac steps in beside me, while Jeremiah goes off with some of his men to gather clothes from the ranch house.

“Why didn’t you tell me what you needed?” Isaac asks. “I’m sure you thought he might not listen to you. You weren’t just setting him up, were you?”

I look at Isaac while we’re walking. “I don’t set people up for failure. I ask people to do things and expect them to do it or tell me why it shouldn’t be done. I guess I expected too much from your brother.”

“You should have told me directly, Eddie. You know you should have.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’ve been an ass to him all day and thought I should give him a chance.” I stop and turn to face him. “Look Isaac, I asked him where you were and he said you were in your truck ready to go. I was going to go ask you and he asked me if I needed anything. I told him towels and clothes, and he said that he would tell you. I kept walking to your truck wanting to tell you directly, but he grabbed my arm and said I needed to start trusting him. He said he would tell you what I needed, and I told him exactly what he said I did. I said ‘
We are good on everything but we need all the towels and clothes that you can fit in your trucks.
’ I trusted him, but he obviously thought I was screwing with him by asking for towels. I’m beginning to doubt that you will be able to keep him under control if he will lie to you about something so basic as this.

“I don’t trust him, and the rest of your group is also about a stone’s throw behind him on the trust meter. So, you better get your brother and the rest of your people straightened out while they are here. I may be an asshole to you and him about religion, but everything else I say or do is to keep as many people alive as possible. If you or your brother don’t accept that, you can forget about the farm or staying anywhere close to us.”

“Calm down, Eddie. I get it. We all have to work on the communication but it hasn’t even been a full day. It’s going to take some time to get everyone used to each other.”

“I’m sorry, Isaac. It’s been a shitty couple of days, and I’m pretty wound up about it all. Especially being forced to take your group in. Just tell all your people that we don’t usually do things around here just for shits and giggles, and we never send someone outside of the fence on a fool’s errand. If someone asks for it then they need it.”

“I know I didn’t give you much of an option with my warning about Jeremiah, but I can keep him in check now that we are here. My people feel safe again. They won’t back him if he wants to try anything, and he wouldn’t act alone. I don’t want you to feel like my people are holding you hostage by our staying here.”

“Don’t you? You have sixty-five armed people that knew the layout of our ranch. You say your brother would have knocked you out of power somehow and come here to take what we have, and you don’t want me to feel like I am being held hostage?”

“You let us in because you knew the danger in turning us away, but we will earn our stay. My people are workers, and they will know if someone from our group isn’t doing their fair share of work. You have a good setup here, and my people want to be a part of it. If someone gets kicked out later because they weren’t contributing, then everyone will know what they did to get themselves kicked out and it shouldn’t lead to repercussions against you or your group. My brother isn’t a killer and neither are my people. However, I heard that you tortured some people to their unnecessary deaths.”

Thrown off a bit, I stare at Isaac for a second. “The people I killed were a threat to our survival, and we could not let them go without risking another attack.” I smile remembering their screams, and step closer to Isaac, invading his personal space and whisper the rest to him, “What I did to those men was an added bonus I got for our losses, but I didn’t torture those men for my satisfaction alone. Everyone needed to see how far I will go to keep my family and friends safe, and what I will do to those that threaten us. Now, I would love to continue this chat, but I’m sure you would like to get your people situated and move your cars down to where you’ll be setting up your tents.”

Isaac nods uneasily, and while he is walking away, I call, “If your brother isn’t a murderer, then how do you explain him trying to kill your sister earlier today?”

He stops and looks back at me, but then turns and continues on his way. It isn’t easy to be confronted with a dangerous human, and Isaac has just been made aware of two. I am willing to torture and kill uninfected people to keep those I care about safe, and his brother is willing to kill to keep people from having imaginary souls tainted by demons. I think I have the sane and reasonable standing on this issue.

*

It’s the first morning after everyone has returned to the ranch both old and new. We rotate all the jobs to keep anyone from feeling persecuted, or more important than others, like they would if they were always doing a particularly suck-ass job or a sweet one. I’m up early today because it is my day for laundry duty. I normally hate this job, but today I am actually despising it. Most of the clothes we will be washing will be particularly rank since it comes from the Stick People’s and Isaac’s groups. None of them had things as good as us and they weren’t able to wash regularly, if at all.

So after yet another night of not enough sleep, I am trudging along with several other unlucky laundry detail people to begin the days toil. I hope rather than think that I might receive a temporary reprieve from my servitude when I see Isaac walking toward me in a determined and hasty manner.

“If he thinks he’s going to pull you off laundry to help him pick out decorations for their new housing arrangements, you both have another thing coming,” Arthur says to chuckles from the group.

Arthur pulls more than his share of work around the ranch and has earned mine and everyone else’s respect for his fairness and diligence. If this was the military, he would be the sergeant that everyone respects and knows they can’t live without.

“If you say I can’t go, I won’t,” I say to him honestly and fully committed. “Good morning Isaac,” I say as he reaches us.

“I’m missing some people, Eddie.”

“It’s a big place, Isaac. Have you checked—”

“They left the ranch last night. Jeremiah sent them to the store.”

“You can go,” Arthur says from beside me.

“I’ll send some people to help you, Arthur,” I say before starting to walk with Isaac to get the details.

We aren’t able to make it ten feet before another person calls out my name for something. Greg Munoz walks up, and if he says what I think he will, it’s going to be a sad day.

“Hey, Greg. Can you walk with us while we talk? Isaac’s brother lost some people last night, so we need to send out a recovery party.”

“I can talk to you later if it would be better,” he says stepping alongside the two of us.

“There’s never going to be a good time to hear what you want to say, Greg.”

“So you know we want to leave?”

“Yes, Simone told me last night. You are a good man and a friend. I’ll be sorry to see you go. I assume Jessica and Lilly are going with you.”

“Yes, they are.”

Greg, Jessica, and Lilly came to the ranch two days after we survived our largest attack. They also suffered at the hands of the men that tried to kill us with the horde of the infected. Having them here after we finally killed Chad and his group helped everyone heal. Greg’s actions help to remind us that not every person outside of the ranch is evil, and Jessica’s rescue gave us something beyond survival that we could hope for. As corny as it sounds, it gave us the opportunity to help. We needed something more than just our own group to believe in, and the idea that our survival could help others mended some of our emotional wounds from that attack.

I stop walking and look back at the ranch house in the distance, and then back to Greg. I think of how peaceful things were before a few days ago and see the chaos of human traffic that is already occurring at such an early hour of the morning.

“If this wasn’t my ranch, I would probably go with you. I understand why you want to leave. I’m not a big fan of crowds either.”

“But you will let us go?”

“Of course I will. This isn’t a prison, and I never wanted you to feel that you had to stay here any longer than you wanted. I am truly sorry if you had that impression.”

“Oh no. I didn’t. I mean, not until last night when we finally decided to go. I was concerned that day in the sheriff’s office when you found us, but I have never felt trapped since arriving until last night.”

I look at him waiting for an explanation, but he doesn’t get the hint, so I have to ask, “What happened last night?”

“Jessica and I could have stayed and adjusted to fit in with all of the new people, but Lilly isn’t ready to be around so many yet. After the meeting I was going to tell you we were leaving when I heard you tell Jeremiah that he couldn’t leave, and I panicked, thinking the worst.”