DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (17 page)

The sound of metal hitting concrete rang in his ears. The blade of a machete was suddenly jutting from the head of the Hispanic zombie that had been making a meal of his left arm. Kevin’s eyes rolled up to see Rose standing there, a look of a
nger mixed with what looked like sadness.

Now he was certain. Kevin
knew that the eyes he stared back with were shot full of those black tracers. After all, why else would the girl look so sad?

“Aleah!” Rose screamed over her shoulder. “Hurry, it got Kevin good on his arm!”

A few seconds later, the first and only woman he had ever loved was kneeling beside him. She had a box in her hands—one of the first aid kits.

“Don’t waste any of that on me,” Kevin managed now that his lungs seemed to be allowing oxygen back in.

“Shut up!” Aleah growled as she popped the lid and produced gauze and some of the precious alcohol, along with a tube of antibiotic ointment.

Kevin tried to pull his arm free and Aleah placed a knee across his wrist. “If he keeps struggling, I am going to need you to stand on him,” Aleah said to Rose. The little girl simply no
dded like it was no big deal.

Kevin gave up his squirming and went still. He
continued to believe that this was a waste of resources, but he did not want to compound it by fighting against the offered care and possibly cause Aleah to spill the alcohol or drop one of the sterile bandages on the ground.

“It broke the skin, but the flap is still in place, maybe it will hold if…” Aleah’s voice trailed off and she rummaged through the little white box. “Ah-ha!” She held up a yellow tube that Kevin recognized. It had actually been his idea that they include the Superglue in the first aid kits.

“We may not be able to stitch a wound, but we can sure as hell seal it with this stuff.”

“Won’t it cause an infection or something?” Aleah had asked.

“Actually, a lot of survivalists swear by the stuff. It has saved a few lives in its time,” Kevin had assured.

“He isn’t showing,” Rose said as she peered over Aleah’s shoulder.

“Which should prove the whole thing about cats being carriers,” Aleah managed as she tore open a package of gauze with her teeth.

“What the hell is going on?” a voice shouted.

“Just a few zombies, Catie…nothing we couldn’t handle,” Aleah answered. Kevin noticed a tightness appear around her eyes. There was definitely something between these two.

“What
happened to Kevin?” Heather asked as she ran up to the group that had gathered around to watch Aleah bandage him up.

“He got drunk and decided it would be a good idea to wade in and take on the fattest zombie I have ever seen in my life,” Deanna blurted from somewhere in the crowd.

“Drunk?” Heather and Catie blurted in almost perfect unison.

“Can we do this later?” Aleah stood up and motioned for Rose to help her get Kevin to his feet. “Is it safe to camp out in that school or not?”

“It is better than safe,” Heather said with a shake of her head. She had almost forgotten in all of the excitement.

Moments later, the entire group—minus Kevin who was set up in a cot and told to stay put under penalty of a good cuffing to the head—was wandering around the second floor of the school. It had o
bviously been some sort of shelter. There were boxes stacked high in several of the rooms with MREs, as well as cases of bottled water.

Every one of the classrooms had been turned into a dorm with rows of cots that still had a heavy wool blanket and a small pillow. For some inexplicable reason, this well stocked bastion was simply abandoned.

“Maybe they had to run when the fire started?” Heather suggested.

Nobody could be certain, but there were things here that made this worth more than any mall, shopping center, or surplus store. Each room had a series of long tables with propane stoves. There were boxes of the small propane tanks; most still un
opened.

Besides the MREs and water, there were magnesium fire starters, boxes of packaged underwear and socks along with a variety of sizes of jumpsuits. One room was obviously set up for medical purposes.

“How could somebody leave all of this?” somebody asked with a reverence normally saved for churches and libraries.

“Sometimes you don’t get to know the answer,” Aleah said as she walked from room to room in amazement.

“If we could load all of this, we would be set for life,” Sean whispered in Deanna’s ear as they slipped away from the main group. “Or we could just stay here…I don’t know why we would want to just walk away from something like this.”

Deanna snuggled in close and put her head on his shoulder. It certainly was enticing, but for some reason, she just did not feel right. The story of Hansel and Gretel came to mind. This was like the witch’s gingerbread house. She kept waiting for something terrible to jump out and
kill them all. She chastised herself for being so negative…so paranoid. After all, why couldn’t they catch a break every so often? Yet, she heard the voice of her mother whispering from some dark corner of her mind.

“If it seems
too good to be true…”

9

May I Have Your Attention, Please?

I sat on the table in the big meeting room. Spotting Jake across the way, I gave a nod which he returned. At the moment, everybody was yelling and shouting to be heard over each other. We had just received our first box. It had been waiting on my doorstep and I would have missed it if not for stopping off first to change shirts. I knew that no amount of washing was going to cleanse me of the nasty feeling that had seeped into my pores.

For the first time since all of this began, I had my doubts about the people that I was supposed to be aligned with. Jake’s group had returned around the same time that I walked that long slow trip to the community center.

It had been labeled the community center, but it was really just the classroom of some pre-school. It had been selected because it had a playground. This way, the few people with children could be present for the meetings and their kids could play and be occupied.

I’d seen Thalia when I arrived. She waved and I waved back. I noticed instantly that she was not
playing with any of the others; she was off to the side just sitting on the ground with her chin resting in her hands. I made a mental note to make sure and stop by when this was over and see what was up.

Carrying the box, I had not wanted to really do much socia
lizing. I knew what was inside it, and that was tearing me up. I was already making my own plans regardless of what this gathering of people who had determined that this “issue” was important enough to warrant their making an appearance would decide.

“…one person is not worth risking…”

“…just need to keep our security measures enforced…”

“…was that the old lady?”

Yep, I had officially had enough. There was a desk in the center of the classroom. A few people were standing around it and gave me a funny look when I pushed through and climbed up on top of it. I stuck my fingers in my mouth and let loose with a whistle that made everybody around me jump. It also now had every set of eyes in the room focused on me.

“You people are wasting time!” I yelled. “Whether you knew her or not, Carol Wills was one of us.”

I opened the box and said a quick prayer, asking her to forgive me for what I was about to do. I reached in and grabbed the contents, tossing the three fingers into the closest concentration of crowds. I made sure that I sort of aimed at the person who had made the comment questioning if that had been the “old lady.”

“This is exactly what those people said they would do!” I
snarled with as much control as I could muster. I turned a full circle, staring into as many sets of eyes as I could. Most of them looked away. “I got news for you people…I don’t know most of you, but
your
group joined mine…not the other way around. Carol was one of
you
. The thing is, she has made it a point to be a part of things since day one. Most of you have just sat back and let others shoulder the burden.”

“Just who do you think you are, young man?” a guy in maybe his forties said like I had just walked in to his country club and dropped a deuce in the swimming pool.

“I’m one of the people who stormed this place, hunted down Winters, and killed him. I’m one of the people who made it possible for you to be here, and I will be the one who puts my foot in the ass of anybody who thinks it is okay to just let Carol die at the hands of whoever these people are.”

I caught just a flicker of a smile cross Jake’s face. He had moved closer to me and I saw Simon and a couple of his people spreading out in the crowd as well. I sure hoped they were
there to back me up.

“Now listen here—” the man began, but an elbow in his gut from Jake silenced him.

Whew!

Jake climbed up beside me. I moved over just a bit when it was clear that he had something to say.
This ought to be good
, I thought. He worked very hard to be anonymous and underestimated. He might be about to blow his cover.

“Nearest we can tell, there are at least a dozen factions l
ocated in and around La Grande. Most seem to be just waiting and watching. A few have responded to our messengers about the possibility of joining forces. However, it seems that more have designs of their own. We have already effectively eliminated one, and ideally we would prefer to avoid conflict, but the reality is that we need to get this place locked down as soon as possible if we expect to live through another winter.

“The group that abducted Carol is the lynch pin. They are the largest of the bunch
, and therefore, the biggest threat. We have discovered their location. They are over by the big golf course across from an elementary school. They already have a large area secured.

“Unfortunately, it is already clear that they are not interested in working together
with us. That limits our choices. We will of course give them one final chance to surrender. However, it will be a very brief offer that will likely only be a formality.”

Jake gave a
nod across the room to Simon who quickly unfolded a large map and hung it on the wall. I pushed away that voice in my head that started to ask questions. I wanted to do whatever needed to be done to rescue Carol. Sure, I hardly knew the woman, but the fact remained that she was one of us.

“We have the area marked on the map and want you all to take a good look at it. If you think you are safe, then consider just how these people have information on us that allowed them to come in and grab somebody because they knew we were spread out.

“It is my belief that, once we deal with this threat, we will be able to move forward with our plans to secure La Grande and parts of the surrounding valley. But I need to remind you that we have to act soon if we are going to get what we need to start planting crops.” Jake finished his little speech and folded his arms across his chest.

Yep
, I thought,
he was done with the image of a country bumpkin
. Looking around the room, I saw the reaction that I now was certain he had been hoping for: fear.

“Are you saying that we are going to have to go to war with this other group?” a woman asked.

I looked up and was surprised to see Melissa. I hardly recognized her, and not in a good way. She had not fared well in Steve’s absence. I recalled back to the woman that we had rescued from that FEMA center. That woman had been a basket case who did not utter a word for the first several days she’d been with us. The woman I saw looked even worse than what I remember from that time that felt like a dozen forevers ago.

She was holding a bundle in her arms that I had to assume was the baby. I had heard that she named him Steve. No big su
rprise, although I personally thought that was a terrible idea. You already have a child that is going to remind you of the person you lost; I can’t imagine naming my kid (should I live long enough to have one with some gal who is willing to make such a huge commitment) after Jamie. He was my best friend in the world, and I miss him every single day. I sure as hell don’t need a baby around sporting that name and ripping the scab off my heart whenever I said his name.

“I am saying that we have to secure our position here if we want a chance at surviving another year,” Jake said.

“And you think war is the answer?” Melissa challenged. “Is that going to be your answer to everything? It sure didn’t do us a lot of good last time.”

She was now right at the edge of the desk staring up at us. I understood that she was upset about losing Steve, but
it was not like she could place the blame on Jake. Hell, it had been Jon calling the shots back then anyway. I again tried to find a legitimate reason as to why we had left that site for this one. We had been a much smaller group back then, but everybody knew each other and there would not have been any question in how we would have dealt with somebody if they had taken one of us back then and sent back a box of fingers as an ultimatum.

I looked around the room and struggled to find
any familiar faces. We had grown in numbers, and I did not really know these people. I saw a few people that I recognized like Jamal, Ed, and Erik. But even they were newcomers as far as I was concerned. I did not see Cheryl…or Dr. Zahn and Sunshine. I briefly wondered if they were still in their secret “lab” conducting experiments on that little zombie.

My eyes continued to scan and I spotted Darla. She was standing in the back of the room taking all of this in. There was no hint of emotion on her face. She seemed more curious than anything else.
I looked around for Katrina and did not see her. That made my heart skip a beat.

She was not the type to miss out on a meeting as important as this one. Those guys had said that they would come back for me. Had she been in my apartment waiting for me like last
time and gotten snatched by these people?

“Billy?” a voice whispered from behind me.

I turned to see Katrina staring up at me with a smile. My relief must have been obvious because her smile faltered and concern crossed her face.

“Meet me right after this…whatever this is,” she said and moved back in with the gathered crowd.

That whole time, Melissa and Jake had been in some sort of debate about our decision to attack this other group. I felt for the woman, but I also knew that she was looking at this through tainted glasses.

“Enough!” I barked. Once again I had the attention of the room. “I get it, Melissa. You miss Steve, trust me when I tell you that you are not alone. He was a good man, but I actually think he would be adamant that we go after one of our own. He was fiercely loyal when it came to the group.
And as for you,” I turned to Jake, “before you start getting delusions of grandeur about some epic war campaign, we need to exercise every option available to resolve this peacefully. There are far too few living humans to just arbitrarily kill off ones who don’t fall in line to your wishes. Steve would have done what it takes to save one of our own, but he would not adopt some sort of Scorched Earth plan.”

I had no idea where I was going with this, but now that I had the undivided attention of the group and had gotten a head of steam, I pushed on and just let my big mouth take me where it would.

“Everybody in this room has seen what is out there…there has been some really bad stuff, and the way that people have become a bunch of animals is mind blowing. What makes us any different? We come to town and start enforcing our will and decide that we are going to unify this place and claim the entire region. Those already here can either accept it or be rolled over? Is that who we are now? Are we the bullies?”

I saw Erik’s face. He’d been acting sketchy after that situ
ation with those lunatics at that RV park. He’d enjoyed taking them down just a bit too much and I had discovered that he had been the target of bullies back before all of this. Yet, he had not seen how quickly he had engaged in that same behavior the moment he was in the position with the upper hand.

I’d always hated bullies. And being as big as I was in high school combined with being on the football team had given me a position where I could do something about it when I saw it ha
ppen around me. Just because society had gone to hell in a hand basket did not mean I had to abandon my principles.

“This isn’t about being a bully,” Jake spoke over the b
uzz that had started to ripple through the crowd. “This is about assuring our safety and well-being. This is about trying to get back to some sense of a normal life.”

Yep, Jake wasn’t going to be able to fool anybody with his country boy charm any longer
, I thought.

“But you are talking about wiping out a
group of people who, in their defense, were here first. We invaded them, and if they don’t join us, we are going to declare them enemies.”

“That sounds good coming from the guy who had one of our people’s fingers left on his doorstep. I thought you wanted to save Carol, well I got news for you, kid, you can’t have it both ways. You say one thing, but you said yourself that we have to do what
it takes to get our friend back. ‘One of us’ is what I believe your exact words were.”

“Then maybe we accept their deal and leave,” I retorted. “We had a sweet set up in the mountains. Why can’t we go back there? Yes, we would have to build shelters for everybody, and it would be hard work, but we would not be taking from others, we would not have to make the decision to kill living, breathing human beings.”

I heard a chorus of approval and could see heads starting to nod. I hid my relief; honestly, I was afraid that I had been spinning out of control on a road to nowhere.

“Why should we build from scratch when everything that we need is in place right here?” Jake spoke above the rising noise of the crowd. “We have ample ho
using, a water supply, and farmland to spare. Why should we step aside and let some other group have this? At least if we take control, the people that are here and those that may find us later will be treated fairly and welcomed.”

“As long as they don’t disagree with your policies,” I shot back.

This was not at all how I had seen this turning out. I had no intention of causing such a divide in our group. I certainly had not expected to be going up against Jake. Yet, I could see and hear our group splitting. I had my supporters and Jake had his; something in my gut told me that this was not going to end well.