No, this was simply to get their attention. They would let the zombies slam into their walls and perhaps knock them down in places. After a few days, she and her people would move in and start making noise to draw them out. If they got really lucky, they would hopefully lead some of them back to the landfill pit.
If she was really, really lucky, then the word would make its way to some of the other communities in the area. She would be sending emissaries to the ones they knew about in a week or two. These people could either agree to let everybody live in peace, or…
She climbed up onto the incapacitated hulk of a pickup truck. She noticed the rusting bullet holes that created a senseless pattern down the side of the defunct vehicle. A long since decomposed body was almost stripped down to its skeletal remains. Something caught Catie’s eye and she saw the smaller skeleton on the floor of the passenger’s seat. The skull had an obvious piece missing and Catie’s mind raced with what could have happened here. Just as quickly, she shut that line of thinking down and returned her focus to the task at hand. Once more she beat on the piece of tin to urge the zombies on in the direction that she wanted them to go.
“I can’t let you do this, Catie,” a voice called, startling her as she was climbing down from the truck.
Catie turned to see Melvin stepping out from the shadows of a house that had suffered a collapse. The roof looked to have caved in long ago as the vines growing up around the old house were now woven into the ruins and perhaps actually keeping the rest of the roof from completely falling in.
“Why?” Catie asked simply. The question had a hundred meanings, and she would be happy with any of them being answered.
“It’s a
Conan
thing, you probably wouldn’t get it,” the big man replied, he actually smiled wide and it was genuine.
“Haven’t enough people died?” Catie pressed.
“Maybe. And the thing is we had a talk and wanted to bring you in on this with us. We both agreed that you were just bad ass enough to make a good leader as we started our empire. But then you started trying to make peace with all these people.”
“You say that like it is a bad thing.”
“It sorta is. We figured that you would see the logic of Elliott’s plan. The thing is, he was thinking small. He was so tied up inside with how he and Dean fell out, that Montague Village was the extent of his scope.” Melvin’s hand flexed and he adjusted the aim of the crossbow he was holding before continuing. “He was reluctant to move on the three communities in the area besides Montague Village.”
“And that was reason enough to kill him?” Catie blurted.
“Yeah…I imagine that shrink in the prison would have had a field day with that. She was always telling me and Marty that we were extreme sociopaths with no apparent conscience and that our decision making was usually influenced by our own selfish desires. She even told me once that the world was fortunate that we had both been locked up at such a young age. She said that we had the potential to be a cross between Jim Jones, Charles Manson, and Hitler.” Melvin chuckled and shook his head. “I think the only thing we were lacking was a real cause. We didn’t care about race, creed, or even if somebody was a freakin’ homo. When this whole immune thing came along, it gave us a cause to believe in.”
“A cause to believe in?” Catie said with disbelief.
“Sure. We figured that being immune made us special. The world was in the reset stage. Being aware of our immune status allows us to do things that those who don’t know their situation won’t or are afraid to do. Add in the fact that we would be responsible for ushering in the next generation of humanity…” He gave a nod to her belly.
“Is that why you guys were so nice? What made you think I would go along with your plan?”
“Is what you’re doing that much different?” the big man chuckled. “Jesus H. Christ, you’re using freakin’ zombies to lay siege to Montague Village. You might wipe that entire community out with a move like that…immune and unknown alike.”
“You really weren’t the smart one, were you,” Catie said flatly. It was not a question as much as it was an indictment of how she felt about the twins.
“I’m smart enough,” Melvin replied with a shrug. “After all, I am the one standing here with my crossbow aimed at you. I drop you and that horde rips you to shreds. They won’t leave enough to come back. Then, one by one, I take down those ridiculous Beastie Boys. A quick run to Montague Village and I warn them of what is coming and how you disabled their perimeter noisemakers that were supposed to alter the course of any large herd that approached the walls. I will suggest this nifty idea about how we use those tin noisemakers you got hanging ‘round your neck. Me and Marty help lead the zombies away and then the people at Montague Village fall at our feet. A victory celebration and by morning, everybody will be sorted out when we add the serum to the food that night. We let the ones who survive take a few days to come to grips with how special they are. Then, we rush to warn the other three communities. They would not have gotten the news yet that everybody in Montague either turned or is now one of the immune. While we are there, we drop a little serum into their food or water or whatever and repeat it until all three communities are sorted out. From there, we build the new civilization.”
“I see where your therapist threw Adolph Hitler in with the other people in her diagnosis of you two,” Catie sighed. Raising her arms in a sign of surrender, she knelt and laced her hands behind her head. “I still find one thing funny about people like you.”
“Really? What’s that?”
“You almost fit the stereotype of the evil villain perfectly. You just gave the whole monologue about your diabolical scheme.”
“So?” Melvin snickered as he brought his crossbow up and sighted in on Catie.
“So? Catie shot back. “So, if anybody overheard you…say some of the people from Montague Village who were on the fence about my offer for peace…if they were to somehow overhear your little monologue.”
The man looked at her with confusion obvious on his face. Catie maintained eye contact, and perhaps she gave a little something away at the end, because there seemed to be a split second where the big man understood her veiled meaning.
There was a series of twangs as over two dozen arrows flew. They hit arms, legs, and a few even found the head. That more than made up for the handful that hit his torso and were absorbed by the sand-filled bladder he wore.
6
I looked down to see Billy staring up at me. He had his crossbow out and there was blood splatter on his pants. Sure, it was just a bunch of really dark stains, but I knew what I was seeing. I stared down at him for a few seconds before it dawned on me that I had not spoken.
“What are you doing out here?” I finally asked.
“What do you think?” His voice sounded angry. “And where the hell is Kayla?” I guess he had good reason to be mad, but hopefully when I shared the information I had managed to gather, he would not be quite as pissed off at me.
I started talking as fast as I could after he started up after me. He had a lot of questions when it came to Cricket and his people, but when it came to my recounting my experiences with Kayla, he seemed to mostly nod and make the occasional sound in his throat that I took as either him simply digesting the information, or storing it to use against me later.
Obviously we were going to spend the night here together and wait out the storm. Billy built a fire and pulled a few things from his pack. He barely even acknowledged the meat I added to the little feast, but I guess being pissed off makes a person less likely to show appreciation for the little things. Also, to be fair, he did have plenty of food. It wasn’t like he was going to go hungry if I hadn’t thrown in my rack of pork ribs.
“So the main army is just gone?” Billy sounded incredulous. “It seems too unlikely.”
“Not if the main part of the real fighting force is that group led by that guy Randy,” I offered around a mouthful of charred pork flesh.
“Well, it is a shame about Jackson,” Billy sighed, leaning back against the wall and handing me the canteen.
There was a long silence and I was not in a hurry to break it. Despite the last few minutes being relatively pleasant, Billy had torn me a new one almost every single time that he’d opened his mouth. Granted, I pretty much deserved it, but a person can get tired of hearing how bad they screwed up after a while.
“So how is everybody?” I couldn’t stand it and had to ask.
“Melissa and Stevie are fine,” Billy replied, knowing very well what I meant to ask. “Considering how she has been on my ass since your last trip out, I would say that she has taken this little escapade rather well…considering.” There was something in that tone that made me a little nervous. “And Stevie…he just thinks that you are invulnerable and will always come back.”
“So why are you out here?” I asked. It seemed like a good question.
“I made a promise a long time ago to Steve. I told him that I would keep an eye on you.”
“I am sure that you have lived up to your promise. I am not a child anymore.”
“Yes, Thalia, like it or not, yes you are still a child. I will grant that this is not the world that I grew up in, but that does not change biology. You are still a kid. We have created Platypus Creek just for that sort of thing. We have tried to carve out a little piece of civilization where things can be a teensy bit normal.”
“But I don’t want to be normal…whatever that is supposed to mean. I want to be like you, and Jim, and Paula. I want to be a fighter and a protector. I want to do something besides cook meals and work in a garden.”
Now it was apparently Billy’s turn to be quiet. I could see something brewing behind his eyes and I was not sure it was something I wanted to hear. At last he closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. When he started talking, I could hear the strain in his voice.
“Melissa isn’t doing well, kiddo. You don’t remember what it was like in the beginning with her. Hell, I barely do. That is mostly probably due to me just being a kid myself back then, plus all the chaos we faced every single day, but I do remember a few very particular instances with her that might have been warnings of things to come. She is not always…here.” He tapped his temple as he spoke. “The day that you left on this little excursion, it was Stevie who told us you were missing. Only, he told Dr. Zahn first. The reason being is that apparently Melissa was going about her day like nothing was wrong when he eventually discovered that you were gone. That was after a full day out at the garden trying to arrange some cuttings and such in the event that we had to abandon Platypus Creek. When he asked her where you were, she said that you were probably outside playing with Emily.”
I let that sink in. That didn’t make any sense to me. Why would she say I was with Emily?
“She thinks Steve is out on a run and should be back any day now,” Billy added after I just sat there with no idea what to say.
I was stunned. How long had she been like this was the first thing that came to mind. Apparently Billy saw it on my face.
“She’s been slipping for months. That is why Paula and Jim have basically taken you under their wings and shared you.” He took a drink of water and then continued. “And I’ve been keeping tabs on Stevie. He’s a pretty smart little guy. We haven’t really ever talked about it, but I am certain that he knows. That is why he stays so busy but still stays so close to home.”
I felt terrible. For pretty much the past few years, I’d put distance between myself and Melissa. It wasn’t anything personal, I just never felt like she was all that attached to me and I had come to be okay with that. It didn’t change anything about how I felt towards little Stevie, he was my baby brother and I would fight anybody who said otherwise; but Melissa was just Melissa in my eyes.
“That still doesn’t tell me why you are out here looking for me. I mean, sure, you promised Steve you’d watch over me. But I would think that the community is a bit more important. Isn’t that why everybody was so quick to write Jackson off?” I asked.
“Nobody wrote him off, but we also knew that there was no reasonable way that we could go after him with any hope of being successful. What good would it do to lose three or four people trying to rescue one? That was a logic that went by the wayside when the scales tipped in the favor of the zombies. Now, every life is important on its own right. Nobody is more or less valuable.”
I didn’t think that was entirely true, but I understood. Yet, here he was, out looking for me; that sort of flew in the face of his answer and I let him know it. He didn’t reply for a while, and I had started to drift off thinking that perhaps he had made the choice not to answer.
“Just because you know something to be right or wrong does not mean you always act on it in the right way. This was purely a selfish and emotional action on my part.” I opened my mouth to say something to the effect that I had been guilty of the same thing, but Billy was not done talking. “And unlike you, I told Paula and Jim where I was going, the route I was going to use, and the latest that I would allow myself to be absent.”
I shut my mouth with an audible click. It may have been my imagination, but I thought I heard Billy stifle a laugh. It was growing dark and our fire was down to just the embers which made it impossible to see his face now as darkness took full possession of the world outside and ushered in the steady drumming of rain that fell hard on the roof.
I fell asleep to that sound, my mind not knowing quite how to process everything that had just been dumped in my lap. It made me wonder how people dealt with this sort of thing before the zombies—and by “this sort of thing” I mean Melissa’s erratic behavior. I’ve heard that there was a label for everything, and a pill that supposedly made it better. Right now, I wished that I had one of those magic pills for Melissa.
***
“On your feet, kiddo,” Billy chirped. He sounded way too cheery for as dark as it looked outside. To make matters worse, it sounded like the rain had only gotten heavier. I could barely hear him talking over the steady beat of it on the roof of the tower we’d spent the night in.
We stepped outside and I was almost instantly drenched. The rain was coming down in sheets. I guess that is just another difference between me and Billy; I would have opted to stay inside until this hopefully passed over or at least died down.
We set a hard pace and I had to wonder if maybe Billy was punishing me for my having left like I did. When we stopped for the first quick break of the day, I thought it was maybe to grab a bite to eat. Instead, Billy grabbed my arm and spun me around so that I could see the handful of zombies staggering out of the woods.
These were old and lacking any sort of clothing. We quickly split up and took them down. I dropped two and he took down the other three. It was fast and so effortless that it almost made me dismiss them as threats. The only reason that I didn’t is because of what I’d witnessed the past couple of weeks as well as my last encounter where a few of them were almost enough to take me down. If nothing else came of that little excursion, at least I had a renewed respect of the zombie as a threat once more.
By the time it was past midday, the worst of the weather had blown over. That didn’t do much good since I was already soaking wet. Also, while the rain had lessened, the wind was taking its place. If we stopped for even a few minutes, my teeth began to chatter. Still, no matter how miserable I might be, I was not about to complain or show any signs that I was uncomfortable. (Except for my teeth chattering—which I had zero chance of stopping, short of wiring my jaw shut—but since Billy’s were doing the same thing, I figured I was okay on that aspect of my misery being visible.)
As the sky began to darken, I was feeling anxious. I knew by the landmarks we were passing that we would be home before nightfall. When the walls eventually loomed ahead, I had to stop myself from running the rest of the way.
After clearing the gate security, Billy took me straight to the old cabin. I shot him a confused look, but he didn’t say anything. When we reached it, I was surprised to discover Sunshine, Dr. Zahn, and Melissa sitting at a table eating dinner. This place was a meeting hall and where the committees and security teams usually met. For some reason, a long table had been set up in the entry area which is where the three women were eating a bowl of some sort of stew.
When Melissa looked up at me, there was something on her face that flashed very briefly. When she spoke, I realized that what I had probably seen was recognition. Unfortunately, it did not stay long.
“Billy, any word from the group?” Melissa asked.
I shot a look at Sunshine and Dr. Zahn; they both gave very brief nods, but then returned to eating. Billy began to shed his field weapons and hang them on a rack near the door that I’d never seen before.
“Any day now, Melissa,” he said as if that were the normal and proper response.
“Who is the new girl?” Melissa asked. “She could pass for Thalia’s older sister.”
“My name is Thalia, pleased to meet you,” I said with a smile, extending my hand to Melissa.
“That is amazing. It is such a unique name…and now we have two…” Melissa’s voice faded and she just stared straight ahead now, a little bit of drool making a path down her chin and dangling for just a moment before breaking loose and landing with a splat on the table.
Dr. Zahn glanced over her shoulder and Cynthia Byrd bustled in. I watched as she came to Melissa, draping a blanket over her shoulder as she whispered into Melissa’s ear and helped her to her feet. All I could do is watch as the two exited the room. If that was painful to observe, then seeing the look on Stevie’s face as he emerged from the bathroom, his eyes locked on the door that his mother had just vanished through, was even worse.
In that moment, he looked so young and frail. None of the prankster and incredibly bright youngster that I had come to know was visible. He turned his head; when his eyes locked on mine, I saw a bit of that sparkle appear and he rushed to my arms that had flung open of their own volition.
“Thalia!” he croaked. I hugged him and felt him almost melt into me.
“Nice to see you back, young lady,” Dr. Zahn said in that voice that let me know I was in a bit of trouble.
“I think I’ll go see if Cynthia can use my help,” Sunshine excused herself.
“I would stay here with Thalia, but I can tell that the adults want to talk to her,” Stevie sniffed, his voice muffled from being pressed to my belly.
He pulled away from me and quickly wiped away the tears. I could see that he wanted to say something, but there was an uncharacteristic hesitancy. I nodded to him, indicating that he should say what was on his mind.
“Please don’t leave again.”
Those four words punched me in the gut. I had been so focused on what I felt I needed to do that I had completely discarded everybody’s feelings. While the adults like Billy, Paula, and Dr. Zahn might have a fondness for me and care about my well-being, I was family to Stevie. In this world, that little word has taken on a very deep meaning. I’ve heard some folks say that families had sort of fallen out of the degree of importance we hold them now. Supposedly, some people only spoke to family at holidays or special events in the Old World days. Very few hung out and just did things together because they wanted to spend time with each other.
He didn’t wait for an answer, he just turned around and left the room through the same door that Cynthia Byrd had escorted Melissa through. That left me with Billy and Dr. Zahn. A noise behind me made me turn around. I think my groan was inward, but it might have escaped. Paula walked in, her eyes flicking to me for just a moment before shifting to Billy.