DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (30 page)

“Sort of like a Garden of Eden,” Graham answered. “The soils in these parts are fertile from the volcanic residue. That makes for some good crop yields. We have
even managed to save a good amount of livestock. Cows, goats, chickens and the like. Plus there is the university which had a fantastic agriculture department. But I think that the big deal is that little facility that was just coming on line out on Cove Highway. In fact, now that things are settled here, we are preparing to make a run out that way ourselves.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. When I did not bother to ask, he gave me a nod.

“You’re a great deal smarter than some would expect from somebody so young. You hold your tongue, don’t give up too much. I gotta say, wish my son had some of your sense.”

I fought back the heat that was trying to creep into my face. I was never good at accepting compliments. That didn’t mean I did not love them just like anybody e
lse; it was just that I never knew how to take them. Did you say something as simple as “thank you” or did you return their compliment with one of your own? I never could figure that out.

“Out on Cove Highway, some foreign company…I think they were Swedish or German or something,” he continued after I sat there silent, wondering how to respond to his compliment. “I just know that their company name had them little dots over some of the letters. Seems they were developing massive wind farms and had everything in place for some experiment. They have all the components in place for a wind farm that would power a city the size of La Grande
prior
to the zombies coming. Our power draw would be a fraction of that.”

“I may be missing something,” I finally had
a comment worth saying. At least I sure thought so. “But unless you have a bunch of engineers or really smart folks, how do you think you are going to make something like that work?”

“Because a dozen of the engineers from that facility live here,” Graham said proudly. Personally, I thought he was giving away too much information to a relative stranger. But then again, what was I going to be able to do?

“So you think you guys might have power of some sort up and running here someday?” I thought out loud more than actually asking.

“By this time next year at the soonest, but still, yes there is a very real chance that we will have power up and running.”

That would make this place really dominant
, I thought. With most people just struggling to survive, the idea that an entire town would have a power grid was impossible to imagine. It would also make them a huge target.

“So now you understand why we are trying to bring on some good people,” Graham interrupted my thoughts. “We will stand out like a drag queen in the Vatican.”

I had never heard that particular saying before. It made me laugh before I could catch myself. The harder I tried to push it away, the stronger the visual became.

“So, I guess now is as good of a time as any to ask you if you would be opposed to joining our community here. More specifically, we’d like you to volunteer for
the expedition to the wind farm facility.” Graham had just been laughing with me, but like a switch had been abruptly flicked, he grew serious as he hit me with that request.

I sobered up in a hurry and found that I suddenly forgot how to laugh. The sound died in my throat like somebody had just punched me in the larynx. I sat back and looked the man in the eye
s. All those warning bells that I had worked hard to shut off when I had made the decision to come here and join this group suddenly began to ring with renewed urgency.

“Why me?” It was a very simple question.

Graham was now the one doing the staring; all of that good-natured stuff that had been so evident on his face vanished like it never existed. I was suddenly reminded of Jake. Was this just a case of me being so young that I was no good at reading people who seemed to easily see my every thought and emotion?

“Did you think that the men who first paid you a visit did so randomly?”

“No, I thought it was because I was on the outskirts of the compound.”

“That was just a fortunate circumstance for us. The reality is that nobody comes in or out of La Grande without our knowing. We have people spaced all the way around this area and saw when you first arrived as well as your hasty departure a while back. We also watched that compound suddenly suffer an ou
tbreak and then the departure of two men. One who later returned and eventually led an assault on our town.”

I was floored. How in the hell did they know so much? It seemed improbable if not impossible. Graham’s smile returned just as the gate opened. When Darla entered, I felt just a touch of anger flicker in the pit of my stomach. She had played me!

“Sorry, Billy, I hope you understand,” she said as she joined us on the porch. But the person who came next was the real surprise.

“Carol?
” I breathed.

“I hope that we will be
able to be friends, Mister Haynes,” she said, her voice suddenly sounding so different in my ears.

“I don’t—” I started, but my mouth shut quick and I sprang to my feet, my head craning around to the sliding glass door. The last of my group was inside that house. They had followed me and trusted me. I had led them to…

That was the problem. I had no idea what I had led them to; my head was spinning.

“You must understand,” Carol joined our little party on the back porch and stood beside Graham who remained seated and Darla who had plopped down into the last available chair at the table, “we
don’t mean you or any of your people any harm. Sadly, we have encountered some very bad individuals in the past several months. When our scouts first discovered your group up at the Wallowa Forrest State Park, we wanted to ask you then to join us. Unfortunately, that was right around the same time we were faced with Winters and his people. We could not spare the manpower to send an emissary.”

“An emissary?” This was getting more confusing for me, not less.

“We are not fools here, Mister Haynes. We are going to need manpower to secure this location. Yes, we have over a thousand residents currently—”

“A thousand!” I blurted, cutting Carol Wills off
and causing Darla to actually jump and reach for the blade on her hip.

“As I explained, we are intent on reclaiming this area from the groaners. We want to brin
g back at least some of the creature comforts. Of course that will make us a natural target for some.” Graham was now echoing my own previous concerns back to me. “To do this, we need people to want to come here and live. But they also have to be willing to live by certain rules and want to be part of the solution rather than the problem.”

I honestly believed that I could faint. All of this was so overwhelming and beyond anything that I imagined possible. Suddenly, our little cabin up in the woods seemed so primitive. I remember how excited we had gotten when we’d come up with a gravity flow shower head and a way to warm water so we did not have to take freezing cold showers. These people were tal
king about breathing life into an honest to God city.

“So why did you join us and not simply have our people meet with your people?” I
asked Carol. “I mean, you even went out on a mission for crying out loud.”

“Yes, and I learned a great deal about the people in your community in doing so. In addition, I was able to identify some possible dangers,” Carol said with a shrug. “We might have completely decided against trying to connect with your group were it not for the doctor. Something like that can make you willing to overlook certain things like the fact that you had so
ldiers in your group.”

“So you are saying that every soldier is bad?” I challenged. “Because I got news for you, Dr. Zahn was an Army doctor.

“We are not saying that at all,” Graham said with a shake of his head. “But we have come to be more distrustful of the military. A justifiable reaction considering what we have witnessed in the past several months.”

I sat back in my chair and tried with little to no success to wrap my mind around all of this. Finally, I turned my full atte
ntion to Carol Wills.

“So how much of your story is real and how much is part of your cover story?” I asked.

“Everything you know about me is true. The lie was in my omission…the parts that I did not tell you. And, Mister Haynes, if I may put this before you, I did develop a genuine liking for you and some of the others. I hope that you will come to understand that I was acting in the best interest of
my
community. Much like you did for yours. I was never more happy than to hear that you had come here to negotiate for my release. It let me know that I had not been wrong in liking you.” Carol actually had the decency to look embarrassed.

“So why the big show about capturing you? Why the fingers in a
box? Why not just come out with it.”

“That is my fault,” Graham spoke up. “Actually, the plan was to extend the offer to you, reveal at least some of our secrets to you and ask you to possibly bring along those you felt could be trusted.
However, the concern was that you had become…sucked in by Jake and Jon—”

“Hold on!” I snapped, slapping the table. “I have no idea what the heck was going on with Jake, but Jon was a good man. He was not like the others.”

“Perhaps,” Carol and Graham both said with a look passing between them that made me think they were not convinced.

“Am I missing something?” The sliding glass door opened and Dr. Zahn stepped outside. I caught a glimpse of Melissa just before she ducked back behind the corner created by the stairs l
eading up to the room that I had woke up in.

“Dr. Zahn, a pleasure to finally meet you,” Graham said with that same tone he had used when we first met. He was ste
pping past me with an extended hand ready for shaking.

“Can it,” Dr. Zahn snapped, causing the man to stop in his tracks.

Yep, they might be able to bulldoze me, but they would find the doctor a much more difficult task. And now it was my turn to sit back and just observe. The first thing that I noticed was how Darla’s face gave away the fact that she was wishing that she could vanish. Dr. Zahn was giving her an evil glare every few seconds while still managing to whittle away at both Graham and Carol.

“Well, if we are to stay,” the doctor finally spoke after she had been
told basically the same story I’d already heard from Graham and the now slightly prickly Carol Wills, “I will have some demands.”

“Demands?” Graham sputtered. Dr. Zahn held up a hand and shut him down.

“In case you have not paid attention, we have been surviving in much harsher conditions than you for the past year. We can walk out of here…provided we are truly not being kept as prisoners…and we can fend for ourselves. Perhaps we will not have the potential for electricity…but make no mistake, we will survive.

“So, yes, I have demands. The first is that I have a lab that will be equipped with the things that I will give you on a list. The second is that Mr. Haynes not be compelled to embark on this little mission of yours, but rather be given the chance to d
ecide if he chooses to or not. And last, that you allow us to continue to live together as a group in this residence until some, if any of us, feel comfortable enough to obtain a place of his or her own.”

That was all quickly agreed to. Dr. Zahn said that she would have a list in the morning. She also said that I would not be gi
ving my answer until tomorrow as well.

They were about to leave when Dr. Zahn spoke up again. “One last thing. The young lady…Darla is it? She stays with us.”

“I don’t—” Graham began, but Darla cut him off.

“I’ll stay.” She stepped over beside the doctor and gave a reassuring nod to both Graham and Carol.

Once it was just the three of us, Dr. Zahn spun on the girl. “What have you told them?”

“N-n-nothing,” the girl stammered.

“Not just about my work, but also about Grady and his people!”

“Not a word,” Darla insisted.

“If you are lying to me and anything happens to them…I will deal with you myself. They are fully aware that your people exist. And if they wish to join you, they will do so on their own.”

“You have my word,” Darla said meekly. She had
my pity; it was not a pleasant experience to be on the receiving end of Dr. Zahn’s wrath.

“And now for you, William.” The doctor spun to face me again. “I want you to go on this mission. I won’t compel you
or make it a demand. But I believe that this would be beneficial for the sake of the group. It will show that we are ready to step in and do our part. Also, it will give you a chance to see how these people operate out in the wild. You have spent enough time around soldiers to get a sense of things and how they should be done. Also, if this place is what they say it is, I want somebody that I trust to bring it all home. I want
our
man to be in the mix.”

Dr. Zahn trusted me! Sure, she had said plenty of other things, but the one thing that I would take away from this m
oment was the simple fact that I was somebody who Dr. Zahn trusted. That, and she had referred to me as a “man”. Coming from the doc, that was a pretty big deal.