Winter's Salvation (28 page)

             
More and more travelers began to show up and wanted to stay, so as the population grew so did the need for security.  They began traveling to the local cities to pick up supplies and hardware stores to begin working on a fence.  At first the fence was just an early warning system for the occasional ghoul and over time it turned into the structure it is today.  With even more people showing up the tents began to be replaced by wooden shanties and structures made from construction staging.               

             
“I. We were actually going to head off.” Eric said.  “I have to get to Maryland and find my parents.”

             
Running his hand over his white beard, “Well why not stay for a little while.  I imagine WoJo probably has some breakfast still, so why don’t you go eat and we’ll discuss this later.”

             
For the first time since the beginning of the walking dead and these are the first living people Eric has seen in two months (Eric guessed, time has escaped him), he felt compelled to ask, “How did all this happen?” 

             
“The zombies you mean?”

             
“Yeah.”

             
“Well that depends on what story you want to believe.”  The sheriff spread his fingers and ran them through his thick frost colored beard again.  “How do you think it started?”

             
“I have no idea?  I was watching a movie when all this went down.” Eric shrugged. 

             
“Every person that has come to this village has a different story.  I have heard that a meteor struck and started this.  I was told that some kids found a barrel of military grade toxic waste and when they opened it some smoke came out and infected them, but I’m pretty sure I saw that on a movie.  One paranoid family that left rather quickly told me the CDC was doing experiments on monkeys and one got out, and just started biting people.”

             
“CDC?” Naomi asked.

             
“Something disease something.  Some government agency that studies diseases and virus.” Elijah responded quizzically. 

             
Drew spoke out, “Center for disease Control and prevention.”

             
They all turned to the young boy and were impressed by his knowledge. 

             
“Very good little buddy.” Elijah put his large hand on his head and gave a little shake ruffling his short black hair.  “I personally believe a story that was told to me by some military guys that passed through a long while back, but let us go eat first.  You have to be hungry and I don’t want WoJo to start putting everything away for dinner.”

             
“There is no lunch?” Samantha asked.

             
Elijah started passed them and opened the flap to the village and waved them out.  He held the flap open for them as they walked passed and started guiding them to the dining area.  “We really fend for ourselves when it comes to lunch.  Food supplies are running low and if we get lucky enough to find some flour or some meat, we do have lunch, but lately we’ve had little luck.” 

             
When they arrived at the dining area the sound of a generator was just silenced.  The dining area consisted of four picnic tables lined in a row and a classic looking meals on wheels vehicle was adjacent to the benches.  The vehicle was made of stainless steel, but was covered with dark colored sheets to prevent the sun from reflecting off of it and giving away their location.  Also the morning sun reflected off of the roach coach and blinded all of the villagers. 

             
Elijah walked up to the window on the side of the covered food coach and put his head inside looking back and forth.  Finding his target, “Hey WoJo, good morning.” 

             
A very peaceful voice came from the window, “Good morning to you.  I noticed you didn’t eat, so I put a plate off to the side for you.”  A plate of food was placed on the window sill and a head appeared out. 

             
A man with a very skinny neck and an over sized head came out like a giraffe.  He wore a blue hat and a very dirty white apron was tied tightly around his thin neck and hugged his body.  “Ah some new visitors.” He said cheerfully.  Wiry, short, peppered colored hairs covered his face and as he talked they stuck out coarsely. 

             
Elijah introduced WoJo to them and then WoJo greeted them all with a plate of food.  The plate consisted of what looked like canned yams and some form of white meat substance.  They carried their breakfast to the closest bench and began to eat. 

             
“So anyway, the story I believe is.”  Elijah said with a mouth full of bitter yams.  These two army guys came down headed south.  They told me after they gave me some MREs and I gave them a solid shelter for the night.  That Darpa was doing experiments on how to make the soldiers not need as much oxygen to function and without dying of course.”

             
Eric looked at him curiously. 

             
“Yeah I did the same thing,” Responding to his look, “but over in Iraq or Afghanistan if they were to be hit by some toxic or poisonous gas and did not have their gas masks on they would all be succumbed by the gas and die, so I could see the point of it.”

             
“Who’s Darpa?” Sam asked not touching her food.

             
“I asked the same question.  Darpa is the company that makes up all the crazy stuff that you would see in the sci fi movies that you think could never happen, but they make it work.  You know like eye scanners, laser guns, teleportation beams, all the crazy stuff in Star Wars.”  He let out a little laugh that made a piece of white meat stuck in his beard swing back and forth.  “Well so for them to make a chemical or a pill that would limit the need for the human body to need oxygen, to me is not farfetched.” 

             
Elijah continued, “The scientist that started this study was named Thomas Wielder.  He started with rats, dogs, cats, monkeys and he could not get the formula right.  He started this during Desert Storm and really got into it when Bush Junior took office, anyway that’s not important.  The first side effects were extreme cramping, loss of hair, tightness of skin, crazy mood swings, and the pigment of their skin turned to a dull grey.  Years and years passed until he finally got it right.”

             
“How did he know he got it right?”  Sam asked again. 

             
“You know I asked the same question; great minds think alike.  They told me they tied a monkey up and threw it into a pool of water.”  Elijah said very quickly.

             
Sam gasped and scowled at him, “That’s so cruel.”

             
“Can we PG 13 this.” Naomi said as a statement not a question.

             
“Sure, sorry, but it did survive.  The next time they did it they used electrodes to monitor its vital signs.  The heart still pumped and there were no negative brain wave readings or anything like that.  So it was a good thing.”  He half smiled at Sam to make it better.  “The brain did not need nearly as much oxygen that it needed before and it still functioned normally.  They monitored the monkey; I think they said it was a chimp, and it acted normally.  It ate normally, breathed normally, when it wasn’t in the water, and still flung poo at the scientist as they walked by.” He looked to Drew and Sam and laughed.  “The next step was to test this on some volunteers and they had some side effects initially with the human specimens, like the tight skin, cramping and mood swings, but wouldn’t you have mood swings if your skin all of a sudden got tight and gave you cramps.”  He laughed at that statement.  “but ultimately it worked.  The human test subjects no longer needed to breathe oxygen on a regular basis.  They could stay submerged for ridiculous amounts of time.  I think they told me they could stay under water for almost an entire day.  After they fixed the side effects they started with a few military members.  They gave it to a squadron or platoon or whatever they called it that was going to Afghanistan.  Then they gave it to a few others that were going to some more hostile places and then he gave it to himself.  Life was good for a while, but Mr. Thomas Wielder started noticing some changes in his daughter and son.  He started running some tests on them and he started noticing they were acting the same way his initial test subjects acted.  Then they started getting reports of the families of military members acting the same way.”

             
“How was it being passed?” Sam asked.

             
“Well that’s the thing, Mr. Wielder figured he must have passed it on.  Maybe after eating after his children, but then his wife started acting the same way, so he rushed them into his lab.  He gave them the same antidote he gave the first volunteers and waited.  More and more reports came in from all over the world.  Eventually his families pulse started to slow and they started to turn violent.  He rushed them to the hospital and saw many other children and adults with the same symptoms were in the emergency room.  Then the cramping started.  He realized that he passed it to his family and they passed it to their families and so on.  This all happened at once.  Everyone started to change all at once.”

             
“That’s the story I believe.” WoJo said cutting in then sitting down next to Elijah.  “It makes more sense than hell is too full, or some kind of crazy stuff like that.  Besides I think that was on some movie or something.” 

             
Elijah finished his yams in one huge bite, “So when would you like to start helping out with our village.”  He emphasized our as an invite into the village.

             
Eric forced the white meat substance into his mouth and spoke sensitively.  “We were really just looking for a place to stay for the night.  We were intending to head north.  I was going to find my family.  I lost track of them the night all this happened and have to go to them.”  Naomi and Sam looked at him inquisitively. 

             
Eric saw them from the corner of his eye, but said nothing and did not acknowledge their stare. 

             
“Well I’m sorry to hear that.  I was really hoping you could have helped out around here.  We are in need of a mechanic and the lil school we have set up, sure could use a good math teacher.”  He said sadly.  “But I do understand you have to find your family.  I do hope you find them and everything is ok.”  He stood up from the picnic table and extended his hand to them.  “I have to be going, but please stay as long as you’d like and if you come back round these parts you are always welcome.”  They all shook his large hand.  “If WoJo has any food left over maybe he could get you guys a doggie bag or something.”

             
WoJo nodded, “I don’t have much, but I can scrounge up something.”

             
“That would be awesome.”  Eric smiled. 

**********

              They finished their food and began their trek back to the tent.  They passed rows and rows of make shift shanties that butted up very close to the boundary fence.  There was only enough room for a guard to walk a muddy path in between them.  In the center of the village were sections of tents and small wood huts that circled an open area with either a camp fire or a fifty five gallon drum that was used for fire.  They passed the old wood paneled RV that the sheriff lived in.  It was made to be a section of the perimeter and two sections of the fence were tied into the front and back bumper of the RV. 

             
They heard the sound of laughing and carrying on and as they walked closer to the ruckus they saw a pavilion made of wood staging and painters tarps stitched together that draped the top of the pavilion.  At the stage or front of the exhibition area was a blond haired woman that was trying to talk louder than the groups of children talking and carrying on.  She was writing on a small chalk board a basic multiplication problem.  Her audience consisted of twenty five youth.  The youngest had to be five or six and the oldest looked to be about fifteen.  Most of the older children sat on plastic chairs and the younger kids sat on wooden logs lined up in rows.  The older children that did not have a plastic chair pushed and shoved its peers for their seat.  Naomi saw this and immediately thought that this woman can’t possibly teach all of these children with such a wide range in age.  

             
Eric was the first to crawl into the tent and begin to gather his things.  Naomi stayed outside and looked at her surroundings.  She saw a village that had potential for a new start.  She saw a village in which she could make a difference and she felt a sense of security and that is what she needed right now, for her and more importantly for Sam. 

She heard rustling inside the tent and Eric tossed his orange back pack out of the small flap.  Eric looked up to her since he was on his hands and knees wondering what was she waiting for and realized she was having second thoughts about leaving. 

“I think Sam and I are going to stay here.”  She said to him looking down on him.  She liked looking down on people; she felt it gave her power over the people she was talking to.  Sometimes she would stand on a curb and look down on the people she was with just to give her the satisfaction of being higher than everyone else.  Then Naomi realized what she was feeling is the reason most of the men in her life have left her and she did not want Eric leave her.  She knelt down in front of him, “I would like to give this place a chance.  These people could use your help, our help, and I need to stop running for a day or two at least.  My neck and back have been killing me ever since this all started.”