“Hi, Dad,” Ronni whispered. “You had me worried for a while there.”
Again Chad tried to speak but found he could not. Slowly, everything began to line up and march across his memory. He realized what had happened before Ronni spoke and confirmed it.
“You had a heart attack. Also, the doctor tells me that part of why you are so weak is due to the possibility of cancer. He wanted to do the tests, but I told him to leave you be. Is that why you have been acting so strange?” Ronni brushed a lock of hair from his face and kissed him on the cheek. “That is what this trip was about, wasn’t it?”
Chad tried to nod, but nothing seemed to happen. He felt tears well up in his eyes and was not sure which emotion was the chief cause. It could have been the frustration or the sadness that his daughter would now be aware of his condition and probably try to baby him.
“I see our patient is awake,” a strange man said as he pushed the curtain aside and entered the cubicle.
“I don’t think he can talk,” Ronni said, taking Chad’s hand in hers as she turned to face the man.
“That is very possible. Partial paralysis is often a side-effect of a massive heart attack like what your dad had. It is possible that it may lessen over time, but with everything else his body is dealing with, I would not place my expectations too high.”
Chad tried to squeeze his daughter’s hand, but he was not sure he succeeded until she spoke.
“He is right here, let’s not talk about him like he isn’t, okay.” Ronni gave her dad’s hand a strong squeeze in response as she spoke, letting him know that, whether or not she felt his attempt at communicating, she knew him well enough to know his wishes.
“Absolutely.” The doctor stepped up beside the bed and began examining Chad. He listened to his heart as well as his lungs and belly. Chad saw his expression go stony as he completed the exam. “I am going to be frank, your dad is in bad shape. Our policy, due to constraints and limitations of this world we live in that is seriously lacking in pharmaceuticals, is to do our best to make a patient comfortable. But I am afraid there is nothing we can really do for him.”
“Excuse me?” Ronni blurted, her voice going tight and sounding just a bit strangled as she obviously struggled with holding back the tears.
Once again, Chad tried to squeeze his daughter’s hand. He knew the situation all too well. That was almost the same thing he had heard back home when the compound’s doctor had told him that he probably had cancer. He had already had plenty of time to accept what was happening. That had been part of the reason for this trip/vacation with his daughter. He planned on finding the right time and letting her know. This had not been how he had wanted it to happen.
He felt his daughter’s hand still squeezing his, and he could hear her voice, but it seemed like it was growing more distant with each beat of his heart, which he now felt all too clearly. The pain was returning, and this time, he knew what it was and found that he had no energy to fight it.
Ronni’s voice came to him from far away, and he strained to hear the words as everything began to turn gray, and then darken. It was like entering a tunnel, but instead of that distant light at the end growing brighter and larger, it did exactly the opposite. Eventually, it was down to a pinhole, and Chad found he was having an increasingly difficult time staving off the pain.
For an instant, he felt the softest press of lips on his temple. Then, from a million miles away, he heard a familiar voice whisper in his ear.
“I love you, Daddy. I always will…and I will always be your little girl.”
Chad finally let go of the tether that he had clung to so tightly, allowing the darkness to come fully and cover that last pinhole.
***
“I realize that many of you feel strongly that this is the wrong course of action,” Jody said. His eyes scanned the crowd that represented the population of Hope as well as most of those who called the corridor area their home. It had been a week since he and Jess returned and the tension in the community was so pervasive that it was becoming almost a physical presence.
“Why does it always come down to fighting?” somebody called from the assemblage.
“I wish I had an answer,” Jody replied. He hated that he was basically forced to respond in single sentences and short phrases. It was the only way to ensure that everybody heard the message clearly. He suddenly felt a bit foolish for not having grabbed the megaphone from the house.
“Are we even sure that these people will do anything?” another person shouted to be heard over the low murmur.
“Nope.” Jody saw no reason to lie. “We only know that they are less than twenty miles from here and they have much the same sort of security in place that we do. They were in league with George and Margarita. Bill Pitts is dead and these people, if they did not have a direct hand in it, were complicit.”
That caused another murmur to sweep the crowd. It was obvious that he would not have unanimous support, but it did seem as if the majority was on his side. He would assemble his people and they would march on this other compound. He knew that could be risky, but he honestly believed leaving them unchecked would result in their being attacked. Already, some of the people working the farms were reporting seeing people on the fringes of the fences. Anytime they were approached, whoever it was would take off. He was about to ask for all wishing to volunteer to step forward when shouts were heard from outside the meeting hall.
A moment later, one of the security details entered escorting two people who looked like they had been rolled in filth, dipped in gore, and then left to dry in the sun.
“Jody, I think you need to hear these people,” one of the guards announced as he stepped forward from the group.
“A herd!” the man gasped, yanking his arm free from the security person who had been holding him.
The crowd went deathly silent. All eyes shifted to the pair of individuals that were now standing a few feet in front of their escort; neither being restrained in any way after Jody gave a curt nod indicating that it was okay.
“Alright,” Jody said, letting that word draw out a bit. “Herds are pesky, but we have withstood our share over time.”
“Not like this one,” the woman who had remained silent up to this point said as she stepped up beside the man. “And…”
She started to say something else, but her voice faded and she dropped her head. The man put an arm around her and whispered something in her ear; she nodded and then visibly shook as she began to cry.
“This is not like any other, and it is our fault. But something went wrong…they…” Once again the man’s voice faded and now he dropped his head like the woman beside him. After a moment, he lifted his head and wiped at his face.
Jody stepped to the front of the platform. A sick feeling began to rise in his stomach. He had a notion that he already knew what this person was going to say, but he needed to hear it.
“Go on,” Jody said. He did not have to raise his voice since the auditorium was almost perfectly silent.
“A few months ago, a group arrived and told us about a settlement near ours that was gearing up to conquer everything in the area. A few of our people were brought to a watch tower of some sort that belonged to these people. This man had our people watch as he tried to approach. You would have thought this man was a gang of blood-thirsty raiders the way the folks in that tower responded. Thank God our people had gone on horseback or our fear was that they would have all been killed.”
“That group was not led by a George Rosamilia and a woman named Margarita?” Jody scoffed, and then scolded himself; now was not the time for being petty.
“I think you know they were,” the woman shot back with her own hint of venom. “And I know that your people led an attack on one of our outposts very recently, killing four of our people and I believe you even abducted one since no body was recovered and the woman you took was not on our immune registry, so it is unlikely that she just wandered away.”
“Please,” Jody prompted, “continue with what you came here to tell us.”
“Came here to tell you!” the man barked. “We were simply running for our lives and ended up here. Your roving patrol gave us no option other than to come with them. Since they had crossbows and we only had our blades, there was no real choice on our part.”
“Okay,” Jody fought the urge to dress this man down, but obviously there was something about this herd that made it more dangerous than others. Or…maybe that other community was a bit weaker and not up to the task of dealing with a large herd. “Please continue.”
“The leading edge arrived the day after you left. There were some that started saying you and your people actually funneled them at our town.”
That received a series of shouts and protests from the group. Jody admitted that such a thing could be done, but they had not resorted to such tactics. None of their charts had shown a herd within a few hundred miles in any case, so it was mostly a moot point; or at least that was what he’d thought up until now. He raised his hands and silenced the crowd before urging the pair to continue with their narrative.
“They were brought from Memphis,” the woman lifted her head and spoke. Her voice was strangled and Jody could not tell if it was from anger or sadness. “We found out too late.”
“Memphis?” Jody was confused. Again, the charts showed nothing in that vicinity when it came to a sizeable herd.
“One of Mr. Rosamilia’s people flipped. I guess he was not clued in on the final plan and when he discovered it, he came to us.” Now the woman spoke with a certain air of authority. Jody had a feeling about the woman and had it confirmed a second later when she continued. “I have been the mayor of Free City for six years. Honestly, we had no idea there was a community so close. If we had, we would have sent an emissary and tried to arrange some sort of accord with you a long time ago.”
“Then why did your people come out with George and attack one of our satellite farms? Children were murdered!” Jess shoved her way through the crowd and actually had to be stopped by one of the security escorts as she seemed to almost lunge at the pair.
“This Mr. Rosamilia was very persuasive. We were trying to protect ourselves.” The woman turned and actually addressed Jess when she gave that answer. “We were led to believe that your people were a direct threat to our way of life.”
“So, we can talk about all of this later, tell us about this herd,” Jody pressed.
“They came, as I said, just after your departure. There were so many. Our trenches have always been enough to stop any threat. Much like yours, they circle our entire town. Granted, we don’t circle the farmland, and maybe we should have. Maybe if we would have had an outer ring we would not have fallen so fast.”
“Fallen?” Selina stepped up beside Jody, a look of fear on her face.
“If anybody survived, we have no idea where they went.” The man took the woman’s hand and gave it a squeeze when she opened her mouth twice but failed to be able to speak. “They just kept coming and coming. The ones in the moat eventually formed a sick sort of bridge that allowed them to cross over. One of our last reports was that all of our noisemakers had been disabled, so we couldn’t even draw them off in another direction.”
That sent a new ripple of concern through the people of Hope. Jody could only speak for himself, but he was growing more confused. If George and Margarita planned to take out Hope, why would they also take out these people?
“You are wondering the same thing that we were,” the man said, obviously reading Jody’s expression. “Why would he attack our community as well as yours?” Jody nodded. “We have no earthly idea.”
“Other than the guy was a gee-dee lunatic,” Danny said as he hobbled up to the front of the stage and motioned for Jody to bend down so he could tell him something. Jody knelt and listened as Danny spoke, then he stood. His stomach was twisting into knots and he felt like he might be sick. His greatest fears were coming to fruition.
“The outer towers have reported that a herd larger than any seen before is headed our way.”
***
Entry Thirty-Three—
I wish I could say that all of the kids took me up on my offer. At least I can say most of them did. Not that they just turned themselves over to me and no longer pose a threat or a risk. The seven of them are going to be a challenge. Still, if I can swing them around and re-direct their enthusiasm for killing, perhaps the world will be a safer place.
I do realize that flies in the face of conventional thinking from the Old World; but that world is dead…literally. I believe that our judicial system had fallen off the rails and was basically useless. How else could it be possible for some guy to walk into a mall or movie theater and shoot the place up, have it all captured on film, and then the guy gets to plead “Not Guilty” or, my personal favorite, “Guilty Due to Insanity”! What a bunch of crap.
My mission has been to bring to justice those who have used the lack of law and order to prey on the weak and the helpless. I have never taken a job based on hearsay. There always had/has to be proof. So yeah, basically, if some community hired me to hunt down some sick fuck that likes to touch little kids and I caught up to the freak and saw that he was doing what he was accused of, then I never had a problem executing the piece of filth. But there has always had to be proof.