Barren Fields (15 page)

“We would have seized your dump trucks and your supplies when you arrived here at the docks, but you have given the trucks to us freely while they were still at the wall, which saved us time and possibly our lives. Even with this act of generosity, I cannot allow you to leave this city with the supplies you brought. They will be desperately needed before our fight is over. I also cannot let you take the ship you were hoping to make your trip south in. In its place I have arranged to let you take a large sailing yacht that we have no military purpose for. It is only slightly smaller than the boat you wanted but with more comforts, I believe.”

Senior Maldonado looks over at George and the others, and gives a big grin to them. They don’t understand his reaction to losing all of the supplies.

“Thank you, General. You are sure you have no need for the yacht?”

“The yacht is a pleasure vessel, and I need ships for work and war. You can leave when you choose once you are boarded.”

“I accept your generous offering and am grateful you are allowing us to leave. May I ask about the other sailing vessel that was requested?”

“Yes, it is available as well. That boat belongs to a couple. They are staying in the marina motel and are American, like your friends. They are anxious to make their way home and will appreciate receiving approval to leave.”

The men shake hands, and the General walks to the building Maldonado’s mother entered. The formation of soldiers disperse. Maldonado motions for Keith and his group to follow him after the General.

Walking through the door, Keith and the others see a most unusual spectacle. The stoic and boisterous General is tightly embracing Maldonado’s mother, with tears in his eyes, and is talking to her. The only word that is understood and keeps getting repeated is
mama
.

After a brief inquiry, Thomas explains the situation to the others:

“That is
Señora Torres
. She is the General’s mother. Maldonado was married to his sister and built the house in Coatzacoalcos, so his wife’s mother, father, and sister could stay with them. That is why the house was so beautiful. He wanted every comfort for them and his wife, whom he had a tremendous love for.”

“What happened to his wife?”

“She died of cancer a few years ago. Her father had a heart attack and passed away shortly after that.”

General Torres walks around the room embracing his cousins, nephews, and nieces. He finally stops at a woman holding the baby, Milagro. He gives her a strong embrace, and then lifts Milagro into the air.

“Milagro’s mother is his sister.”

Senior Maldonado walks up to the men, who are strangers in this show of familial affection, and begins to speak to them.

“He says not to worry about the supplies. What was said outside was mainly to give the appearance that the General was still being firm. It is important to stick to protocols when dealing with emergencies such as these. Turning over the dump trucks did help provide the basis for allowing their two groups to leave. Without that act, General Torres would have had to lose face in front of his soldiers by allowing his own family to leave. The supplies are being loaded as we speak, and someone will come to get us when our boat is ready to leave.”

*

The two groups are standing together on the dock. Senior Maldonado’s family is already getting on board. The yacht that they are taking is magnificent and the crew is happy to be leaving, but the former owner of the ship was not thrilled at all when he was escorted away. He made too much of a show on entitlement and ruined his chance for escape or freedom with the General.

The owners of the smaller sailboat haven’t said a word since arriving at their boat. They were told to go get on their vessel and wait for Keith and the others to board.

Senior Maldonado comes by and shakes each of their hands. Speaks a bit to Thomas, smiles, and walks off.

“He said it was good fortune for us to meet and help each other make it away from the disease. He wishes us all luck and hopes we find a safe place to live.”

Chapter 12

Lost and Found

Oregon.

Present Day.

“Eddie, are you in here?” Arthur calls from the door of the barn.

“Yeah, I’m up top.”

I’ve been stacking supplies for the last two hours with Donald Chapman, his son Joshua, and Franklin Dougherty, one of the people we rescued from Stockton’s men at the store three days ago. Many of the former captives want to do something useful, but besides Danielle, only Franklin has the physical strength to be able to help out at this point. Franklin was only captured a week before we rescued their group, and he was surviving fairly well before that time so he wasn’t beaten down and starved to the point needing a long recovery.

“Eddie, I think we have a problem. You need to get to the house and speak with Gayle.”

Gayle is a great cook and baker but is also a profound worrier and world class gossip, so I’m not looking forward to this particular encounter. Still, if it wasn’t serious, Arthur wouldn’t have come to get me.

“What’s the problem this time?” I ask while heading down the ladder.

“Today’s scavenger group hasn’t come back yet,” he says with clear concern in his voice.

I look at him knowing what this means, and he just nods in agreement at the silent conversation we just shared. We both start walking toward the house, and Gayle meets us halfway, obviously not wanting to wait for Arthur and me to get back.

“What are you going to do about this, Eddie?” she asks, stepping in line with us as we continue heading to the house.

“Has anyone heard anything on the radios?” I ask Arthur, ignoring her question for now.

“No. We haven’t heard a thing. Tim and Dianne were there when Gayle came up to ask about the group not being back. They are getting a truck ready to head into Grants Pass to look for our people and are probably getting some volunteers together as well.”

As we walk up to the house, one of our SUVs driven by Tim drives up from around the back of the house. Tim’s wife Dianne, my wife Simone, and several others come out of the house, carrying guns and gear in preparation for a possible rescue mission.

“You can’t go into Grants Pass,” I tell everyone as I walk up. I don’t think I’ve been met with more severe looks in my life, especially from my wife.

“You are not going to stop them, Mr. Keeper,” Gayle yells at me. “My husband and son are out there. If your family had any understanding of what people have lost you would know why your people are ready to leave.”

I spin and step right up to her, sticking my finger in her face. “If you were a man I would knock you in the teeth for that. Hannah is out with the missing group, and I’m telling you and everyone here that we aren’t going into Grants Pass. It will be dark before we get there, and going into the city at night will be suicide. Every one of you knows there are too many runners out there for us to deal with in the dark.”

“You pretend to be some kind of leader here, Eddie, but you’re nothing but a coward.”

  Simone steps between Gayle and me, and pleadingly says, “Eddie, we have to do something!”

“
You
, what’s your name?” I say pointing to one of the men from Isaac’s group that is ready to head out.

“Jeremy.”

“Jeremy, give your gun and pack to Gayle. She’s going into Grants Pass.”

Gayle steps back with a face full of fear at the prospect.

“You want to prove your love for your husband and son, Gayle? Grab that gun and let’s head out to rescue them. I’m ready, aren’t you? I mean, if you’re so ready to send others out there on your behalf you must be desperate to do it yourself as well.”

I cruelly let her back up a few more paces while her face is awash with new tears and terror before I go on.

“Fine Gayle, you’ve proven your undying love and loyalty to your family,” I retort sarcastically. “Now, keep your comments about me being a coward to yourself, and let me think. I’m not going to let anyone go into an unwinnable situation like Jeremiah did.”

Three days ago, Isaac’s brother sent four of his men into Grants Pass after dark, even though I told him it would be sending them to their deaths. He was desperately clinging to the idea that things weren’t as bad as I made them out to be, and that the runners were a fluke. The men went out fully armed and ready for the worst, and they didn’t return.

We found their truck undamaged and some of the remains of one of his men still strapped into the back seat of the crew cab. The truck had the ignition turned on and the gas tank was empty, so it was running and the tank ran dry after they were attacked.

They apparently stopped it there with the intention of getting out to check something and were swarmed, or had to stop for some reason, and were swarmed. In any case, there were only thirteen empty shells on the ground near the truck and none beyond it, showing that the men made their brief failed stand right at the truck’s doors.

The unlucky fellow that was eaten probably had an infected runner open the door on him before he could see that anything was outside the truck. The other three haven’t turned up yet, but I have no doubt we will see them again as long as they weren’t completely consumed as well.

Jeremiah accidentally sending his men to their deaths did help us in one aspect and possibly two. First, even I didn’t know things had gotten so dangerous out there. With the runners able to hunt and coordinate, they use the night to their advantage, and while Erde says they probably don’t have any enhanced night vision, they are more than capable of running up to a pair of shining vehicle headlights in the dark to see if anything tasty is attached or near.

The second thing we will learn, if any of those three infected men of his show up at the ranch and attempt to attack people here, that would show us that infected people still have some memory of their previous life. Right now I need to figure out what we can or can’t do to get my daughter and the rest of our people back.

“They might just be broken down on the road between here and Grants Pass,” I say. “Let me grab another truck from the back real quick, and we’ll drive as far as I feel it is safe to do. If I turn back then we all turn back. Agreed?”

I get nods, but Gayle pleads as I start walking off, “Please just leave now. Why are you getting another truck?”

Without slowing or turning back, I simply call out, “And how would we bring them back if we should find them without a working vehicle?”

I drive up and pull to a stop next to the other truck, and Simone gets in with me. I see Timothy set to drive the other vehicle, and Dianne is next to him. Daniel Palmer and his sister are in the next row, and Isaac’s man, Jeremy, and one other I don’t know the name of, are in the back. Our two vehicles drive out the gate into a world that has become a nightmare of running infected within the nightmare we were already living.

A week ago all of our thoughts were that soon we would be free from this disease because the infected were finally starving to death. Then, we encountered the first runners. My wife and I were so confident that the infected of the world were dying off that we foolishly took all of our children with us on a scavenging run on bicycles. That bit of optimism ended with me being bitten and all of us believing I would soon be dead. Now we have a world where the infected are faster, are coordinated, and are almost as dangerous as the remaining criminal element of society.

The night is falling fast, and I’m terrified while driving down the road. I keep looking at Simone in the passenger seat and wonder what we will encounter on our drive, and if we will even make it back.

“We can’t go into Grants Pass, Simone. Not even for Hannah.”

“I know, Eddie,” she says quietly. “What are we going to do? Where are all of the runners coming from?”

“I don’t know. Even Erde doesn’t have a clue about it, no one does. None of it makes sense. A week ago we never saw them before, and now hundreds are running around, maybe more. Erde says the parasite has obviously evolved, but it is statistically impossible for it to be evolving the same way in all of the walkers.”

“You don’t think all of the runners were survivors that just got caught, do you?” she asks concerned.

“No. At least I don’t think so. I would hate for that to be the case. Can you imagine surviving for this long just to be infected by a runner?” The discomforting question hangs in the silence for a while. “It would make the most sense if that was the case, but it doesn’t explain what we’ve been running into.”

“I know. Do you remember that man that attacked us two days ago, the one pulling the barbed wire and post? He had to have been infected a long time ago.”

“Yeah, he looked like he spent a month outside stuck on a fence and only recently broke free. If he was out in a field somewhere stuck on a barbed wire fence, there’s no way the Zeus parasite in him could have changed identically to an infected in town. But he was definitely a runner now. So something happened to him.”

*

“I see one there, by that building. Do you see it?” Simone asks as we drive through Rogue River.

We are in late dusk, and in another five minutes I know we wouldn’t see the infected unless they run out in front of our headlights. As we climb the
on
ramp to the interstate and begin heading toward Grants Pass, I realize I have been giving the steering wheel a death grip, and my shoulders are raised up and tense as well. I ease back and roll my head around a bit to loosen the muscles, knowing the first gauntlet of Rogue River is behind us.

When we drove into Grants Pass the morning after Jeremiah’s men went missing, we took three trucks and twelve people—just to be safe. Even then we noticed a runner looking out from behind a building or darting around a car in the distance, trying to figure out a safe way to approach us and attack. We had to shoot six of them before they seemed to get the message that our group was too dangerous to approach. As scary as it was to know these things can think and reason so well, it was good to learn that we could send in smaller groups than twelve to do scouting and scavenging. All we have to do is make sure the group going has good visibility during the daytime and one or two decent shooters set up to kill any advancing infected.

Two days ago we managed to send in a team of six, and they searched a block or two for supplies, clearing buildings of any infected that they came across. The supplies they loaded into one building and a pick up team arrived later in the day to bring the gathered supplies back to the ranch. The same system worked yesterday as well on a team I joined.

We knew we would have to send in larger groups as we ventured deeper into Grants Pass but figured the six man teams would work fine on the outskirts of the city. Hopefully this wasn’t a stupidly optimistic outlook, because if it was, it just cost me my oldest daughter.

I glance over to Simone, and ask, “I shouldn’t have let her go should I?”

“Eddie, look out!” Simone screams at me reaching for the wheel.

I look back to the road and catch a glimpse of something huge flash out of the headlights. There are more giant bulks moving just off the road in the blackness. I can’t tell what they are, but they are they are headed toward the truck. My overstressed condition from worrying about Hannah and the few milliseconds of seeing what these creatures are is enough to convince my brain that we are about to encounter the latest mutated example of something out to destroy the human race. I swerve the truck left, away from the oncoming horde, and nearly crash into an abandoned vehicle in the median. I slow the truck down so none of them can jump in front of us, destroying our chance to escape.

“Eddie, stop the truck,” Simone says in a peculiar tone.

“Stop the truck? Are you out of your mind? Whatever those things are, they’re huge!”

Simone switches on the cab’s overhead light. “Oh Eddie, you should see your face...”

I can tell she wants to say more but can’t, because she is in hysterical laughter. I finally see what’s so funny when one of the huge creatures lumbers onto the road ahead of us, and I am face to face with the ultimate scourge of humanity. The grotesque creature that will finally erase the last remnants of the human race, a cow.

I stop the truck and look at Simone, who is in full stress induced laughter. She is hunched over in obvious pain at having to laugh so hard, and tears are streaming down her face. She looks at me and is able to regain control for only a fraction of a second before my sad look of embarrassment sends her right back over the edge.

I would love to be able to join her in this laugh-fest, but my time to laugh at this episode will probably occur at a later retelling of events rather than right now. I grab my flashlight off the seat next to me, un-holster my pistol, and step out of the cab into the dark night to see these bovine terrors up close and discuss things with Timothy and his group in the SUV. I walk straight back to them, and Timothy leans out of his window at my approach.

“Eddie, what are you doing out of your truck? Is everything okay? You didn’t hit one, did you?”

“No, I didn’t hit one. I think it’s probably safe to be out here. I doubt these cows would let the infected run up to them and take a bite. As long as they aren’t spooked we should be fine.”