A Very Good Man (37 page)

  “Fine. We go now. We can take the carts back. I have my own now, I'll show you. Sammi, lots of food in the fridge. Mainly jerky, since, you know, no power. It works though, for dry storage. There's some fresh left, but trim the outside of it off first. Don't burn my house down please, alright? We'll be back later, maybe tomorrow. I'll try for tonight though, so remember the knock.” He rapped out the one he meant, which was the first line of happy birthday to you.

  “If anyone comes and knocks using anything else, shoot them through the door. Aim for the head. Not that zombies knock, but I want you to get the practice in case I need you to bail me out again.” He held his hand out for Nate's gun, and the man delivered it with a nod. For once he actually had two, which showed just how serious things really were.

  She nodded somberly.

  “I will Jake.” She promised, voice sounding way too innocent for some reason.

  They headed to the barn, a big brown thing that had been painted once, from the few spots of red barn color that were left, but that had to have been a long time before. It was still sound and the large sliding door still fit firmly on its track. It slid to the side, revealing the old wooden wagon, about the size of a sports car and his monstrosity next to it. It looked... horrible, like something from a caveman cartoon, built of branches and whole, but thin, logs he'd cut down, not all of them really straight. The wheels were tight though, gotten from town, and nearly matched the ones from the older more real looking wagon. The odd thing was, his rolled more smoothly as crappy as it looked. He'd taken it to town and hauled back at least a half ton of stuff in it, way easier.

  Tipper chuckled at it but he shrugged.

  “I made it with an axe. It works. Like to see you do better. I mean that, please do, and then give me one.” He sounded nearly playful as he pulled the empty wagon out and looked around. He had another small wood stove he could spare from in town and some bedding. He'd gotten cart loads of the stuff. It could come in handy. He started loading things quickly. Nate tilted his head as if this were strange or something.

  Heh, they hadn't even checked the trap lines yet.

  That would take about an hour, he told them, if things needed to be reset. They found two rabbits and an opossum waiting for them, one of the rabbits still alive. Excitedly Jake got that back to the house and put the live one in the hutch out back. Live stock for later.

  With gifts in cart, he started back with them. The trip took a while, getting them in at about three in the afternoon. The place held an eerie quiet when they rolled up, people gathered around a body on the ground. No, two bodies, both still moved and the door to the house was closed. Carl had taken out the zombie, one that looked like the new kind. It still flapped and floundered and no one had taken the head off yet. Carl gasped in pain and kept muttering something. As they closed the scene got even clearer. A large chunk had been taken out of the black man's shoulder. No teeth marks though. And it bled freely. A scratch? The damage was deep and blood stained the man's clothes. A man with a rifle stood pointing it at the cleaner on the ground as if he were going to change in the next five minutes.

  “Tony, wait!” Nate said holding both hands out as he climbed from under the metal bar. The man, to his credit, did hesitate.

  “But, Nate, the new rules say were supposed to kill anyone that's been bitten. I...”

  Tipper rolled her eyes as she moved in front of the man, subtly moving to point her shotgun to aim at him. “Not a bite dumb ass. No teeth marks and the right hand of the deader is bloody but the mouth isn't. Use your head. He needs first-aid. Get me a cloth.”

  No one moved.

  Instead they looked at the house, as if waiting for word about what to do to be put to a vote of some secret council. After a few seconds Jake dug out an old bed sheet and wrapped the wound as Carl groaned. It soaked through for a minute, which wasn't a good sign, but then the spot seemed to stop growing, the red circle only about twice what the wound was. Really bad things kept growing, at least while the person's heart still beat.

  They'd need to drop the man in quarantine, but the new ones didn't seem to infect with scratches. Not yet anyway. Jake wondered if it was because they didn't decay as fast. Less stuff to push into a person's blood stream with a single swipe?

  After a while the door to the house opened and a group of men, a few women in tow, walked out of the house slowly, all looking around nervously and clutching weapons. Given the thing that had attacked already, that made sense and Jake couldn't blame them for the fear. He didn't behead the thing yet, it not being his place here anymore, and felt a little shocked that no one else had either. That was just protocol. Carl couldn't, and the others seemed more interested in fighting with him than anything else. Bill, the ring leader and cowardly child abuser wanna-be stepped forward and blustered at them.

  “Him! You've been banned, get out of here now or we'll-” The loud bang from the shotgun silenced the man. Dave smiled.

  “Well, that's settled, look everyone, Jake's back, yay!” The homebody take-over squad wasn't really ready for that, but then no one would be.

  Jake hit one after another of them in the face, including Tracy, who'd come out with the man and two other big bellied ladies. With each shot the odds of survival went up for the remaining people, so he didn't stop shooting until only two people remained, both on the ground covering their heads with bare hands as if that would stop bullets. Not a direct threat though. The woman on the ground looked like she'd been beaten pretty badly. The hooked nose one that had hit Lois.

  Terry? No, Tammy, that was it. Next to her was Clint, Justine's boyfriend. She wasn't around though, so Jake asked after her, hoping she wasn't one of the dead he'd been told about. The big boned woman had actually become useful after all, unless that had changed too.

  One of the women from inside the house, looking pale and scared, a nervous one, who'd voted against Jake but hadn't spoken up that he recalled, softly said that she was in with the injured, guarding them with Carley, since they couldn't defend themselves. Clint it turned out had dumped Justine and was going out with old hook nose now, which was definitely trading down as far as Jake could tell. She'd gotten the bruising when she and Tracy had jumped Carley. Tracy had apparently used Tammy as a club or something, because she looked a lot better than the woman begging on her knees. Even with the bullet hole in her head.

  “God, don't kill me! I didn't do anything. It was him, he made me do it!” Tammy screeched this at first, but got silent when she saw Jake.

  Now, if she'd claimed that Bill had done it, forced her to participate in the takeover or Holsom had, sneaking back or something, then Jake might have bought it, but the woman stared at Clint. The only thing there was that the man, the whining coward, didn't deny it he just looked down.

  “I just said we should throw in with the winning side. That's all.” He grinned, a manic and crazy looking thing.

  “I guessed wrong though, didn't I.”

  Jake shrugged affably, a small smile on his face, and shot him. He'd been too nice to people before and one of them lay dead at his feet right now, her unborn child with her. He did not feel good about that, Holsom's baby or not. Later it would hit him, but for now he had to finish this up.

  “How about you Tammy. Got anything to say on your behalf other than someone giving you bad advice? Carley's a friend of mine, after a fashion I suppose, so I kind of have to look down on attacking her in general. That's the rule with friends, isn't it?” Even if she did have her moments that might push a person into that kind of action. Still, you didn't do it. Attack a person to silence their opinion? Crazy.

  The woman looked at him for a full fifteen second before speaking, her voice low and level, “I'll suck your cock. Any time. I'll fuck you whenever you want. You can take me up the ass. Just let me live. Anything you want, anything.” Her tone was panicked and he shook his head.

  Not because it shocked him overly, or even embarrassed him, virgin or not. No it was just that she'd waited until now to make the offer. Besides, even Jake was smart enough to realize she didn't really mean it. Women would say anything to stay alive.

   In fairness, he reflected, almost anyone would in a case like this, facing almost certain death. Who could blame them?

  “Couldn't have said that two months ago could you? Here, I know, let's put it to a vote. Anyone that thinks we should let her live so that I can finally get some, raise your hand.” He looked around his left hand raised half way, a mock hopeful look on his face. No one else did though. Well... darn. It was the closest thing to a real offer he'd ever had.

  “Sorry, doesn't look good. Too bad, I always wanted to try that stuff. Looks like no one wants me to get laid at all. Oh well.” He started to pull the trigger.

  “Wait!” A call, too loud by far, came from the house door, it stopped, so he didn't even bother pointing a weapon at the woman who spoke.

  Carley. Her hair was shorter, maybe an inch of curls all over her head. It actually looked good on her, as thin as she was now. Sporty.

  Jake smiled at her, her face a mass of bruising at least as bad as Tammy's. He raised his hand in a half wave as she jogged over, a weapon in her own hand. She didn't smile or speak until she was nearly on top of the circle of the dead and dying. Jake expected her to shoot Tammy in the head, for beating her, but instead she giggled softly. It also had a maniacal edge to it.

  Some new trend he'd missed being away? Laughing like a bad movie villain?

  “We all make bad choices sometimes, don't we? She fell in with a bad crowd. I think she sees the error of her way now. We should give her a second chance. If she agrees to abide by all the rules, work hard and not do this kind of thing again. That... it worked with two of the three women, didn't it? Tammy isn't even pregnant, so no hormone craziness.”

  Jake shrugged and looked at Nate, who just stared at the girl on the ground. Others came around and listened from a ways off, since there were fourteen dead, no one wanted to chance being number fifteen for the day. They needed to get Carl into a bed, probably in quarantine, and get him some real care, if they could. Jake ordered it as if he still lived there and several people came to carefully carry the large man in. Lois didn't say anything much, but nodded at him.

  “Thank you Jake. This had to be done.” The tone was firm and a little stiff, since the woman was a dedicated pacifist, Jake thought it was awfully big of her to thank him at all. What he and Dave had done was the opposite of peace. Then she went to look after the injured cleaner.

  Vickie walked over carefully, she hadn't come out for the killing, but then she hadn't fought against any of them either. She looked nervous but that wasn't his problem was it? He'd never had any problem with her. He'd never asked her to have sex, given her history, but she didn't insult him by shooting him down before he could say more than hello either. Really she'd been about the nicest of all the women, as far as that went.

  She hesitated and spoke softly.

  “I held my people back. It was my order. I didn't know what way things were going to go, and I couldn't afford to let us be weakened any more. I know I should have acted, but...” She shrugged.

  So did Jake, “We had it. Didn't even get scratched. Anyway, unless you need me for anything, someone should take out that super-zombie and cart the bodies away. I brought some stuff, bedding and things. Some baby stuff near the bottom, that I've collected. A few animals for dinner if you hurry. Fresh. Well, I should be getting back home. Guests... and I need to make up for the work I lost today. Later. I'll send the others back when they're ready, if you don't come for Sammi first.”