We Go On (THE DELL) (20 page)

The morning dawned overcast and
the sky threatened rain. It was cold and gray just like my mood. A perfect day
for what we had planned. I climbed out of bed at 5 a.m. after a sleepless
night. I fixed a pot of coffee as I did every morning. I felt slow and
disoriented after not sleeping and hoped the coffee would help. The two cups I
had on an empty stomach only succeeded in making me feel jumpy and irritable.
At 5:45 a.m. I decided it was time to go and headed out after kissing Kat
goodbye. She would spend her day in the Village Office filling in for Jim. I
didn't bother to point out that everything would be over with by 7 a.m. I knew
Jim would be mostly useless the rest of the day. I suspected I would be too.

I cruised the ATV through the
quiet little town on my way to the Davis house. Judy stood on the porch waiting
for me as I pulled up. She was bundled up against the cold and a pair of dark
glasses covered her eyes. We didn't speak as she came down to the road and
climbed on behind me. As soon as she was set I started for the execution site.

We had placed the small enclosure
near one of the far walls and behind a screen of trees. I said I didn't want
this to become a public event. As I pulled up to the site, I saw that Dave and
a small security detail already stood by. I asked him if everything was in order
and he said it was. He told me that he had already checked on Marvin and that
Reverend Ballard was with him. I asked if there had been any problems over
night and he shook his head no. He said Marvin had slept like a baby. The
thought went through my mind that at least somebody had but I told Dave I was
glad he'd had a quiet night. Dave said that a detail was standing by to escort
Marvin to the site. We were waiting for all the witnesses to show up. Jim was
absent and I didn't expect him to show up until the last minute.

I hadn't seen the actual site of
the execution so I left Dave and Judy and walked over to inspect. Dave had
selected a small level area for the site and the grass had been cut a couple of
inches above the ground. At the far end or bottom of the U shape stood a six-by-six
post set into the ground and rising about eight-feet into the air. I noticed
the firing squad detail relaxing by one wall waiting to perform their duty.
Barry Stone stood at the end of his group of men and I walked over and shook
his hand. He appeared stoic and said he was ready to do what had to be done in
response to my question if he was ready. I thanked him again and went down the
line shaking the hand of each man and thanking them for volunteering for this
difficult task.

After speaking with each of the
firing detail, I went back out to see if Jim had arrived. I found him talking
to Judy and he turned toward me as I approached. His pale complexion told me he
felt sick. I asked if he would be up to this and he nodded and said he would
make it. I looked at Dave and nodded and he immediately spoke into his radio
telling the escort detail to start this way with Marvin.

As with any dreaded activity the
waiting is the hardest part. It took around ten minutes for the escort detail
with Marvin to arrive. Dave had them use one of the full size trucks as the
escort vehicle. Marvin sat in the bed against the cab with the security men all
around him. As the vehicle pulled to a stop they stood him up and walked him to
the end of the bed where the other detail waited to help him to the ground.
There was no hesitation. As soon as Marvin's feet hit the ground they started
toward the enclosure. Reverend Ballard had ridden up front and hurried to catch
up to them.

As Marvin rounded the corner and
got his first glimpse of the post and where he would die; he hesitated for just
a second. The escort detail gently urged him forward and they were quickly on
the move again. Once they reached the post, the detail worked on securing him.
His hands were cuffed behind him with zip ties and a rope was threaded under
his arms and across his chest. This rope was pulled up and fixed to a spike
driven into the back of the post near the top. This would ensure he stayed
upright after the volley was fired. Once he was secured to the post Reverend
Ballard stepped forward and spoke to Marvin for a few moments. I waited giving
the Reverend as much time as he needed. I couldn't hear what they were saying
and was glad because I thought this was Marvin’s last chance for a private
conversation.

Reverend Ballard turned and nodded
to me and stepped over against one side wall. I approached Marvin and stood
directly in front of him. I addressed him and was determined to maintain eye
contact with him. “Marvin Hamilton having been found guilty of rape and
attempted murder of Judy Davis you have been sentenced to die by firing squad.
If you would like you may make a statement at this time,” I said.

Marvin looked at me with that same
smile on his lips he'd had when I talked to him. I began to think that he
wouldn't say anything when he started speaking, "You fuckers are trying so
hard to act like the world is the same and it ain't. Your laws don't mean shit
to me. So go on and do whatever you want but it don't matter. It ain't gonna
make you feel any better." He looked toward Judy. "If it's any
consolation, you was the best."

I saw Judy flinch and look down
when Marvin said this and he started laughing. I suddenly felt better about
what we were doing. I knew at that moment that I had made the right decision.
Given the chance, Marvin would continue to prey on women until he was finally
stopped. I had a chance to stop him right now.

I stepped in to his view of Judy
so he could no longer look at her. I asked if he wanted a blindfold and he
shook his head no. I turned to Barry and nodded. He immediately called his
detail to attention and marched them in a line across the open end of the U.
Only twenty yards separated the Detail from Marvin to insure no possibility of
missing. Barry brought the detail to a halt and gave them the command to right
face. All six turned to face Marvin in unison. I knew we were only seconds from
completing the task and realized I wasn’t breathing.

Marvin faced the detail as Barry
gave the commands I'd heard so many times in movies but never thought I'd hear
being used for real. Ready, the weapons came to port arms held in front and
across the men's chest. Aim, the rifles came up and pointed at Marvin. Fire,
the sound was one large bang as each rifle discharged in unison with the
others. As I watched, the bullets impacted the center of Marvin's chest. He
strained upward for a split second then collapsed against the rope that
supported him, his head falling forward. Blood poured from the massive wound in
his chest. Barry gave the order for the detail to lower their weapons and he
marched forward until he was beside Marvin's limp body. Without hesitation,
Barry raised the pistol in his right hand and fired one round into Marvin's
head. His head rocked from the impact and more blood flowed to join the ever
widening puddle on the ground at his feet.

Barry holstered his pistol and
called the firing detail back to attention. After giving them the command to
left face, he marched them out of the enclosure and back toward the village. It
was over. Just like that, we had taken Marvin's life. I looked at Jim and he
appeared even paler than he had been and struggled not to vomit. I told him to
take Judy and go back to town. He nodded and took Judy's arm. She turned and
looked at me as they reached the corner. I could tell she had been crying and
she removed her dark glasses. She looked me in the eye and thanked me. I nodded
and she turned and walked away with Jim.

Dave and a few of the security
guys took Marvin down from the post and carried him to the grave already
prepared on the outside of the enclosure. Once laid in it, they immediately
covered him with dirt. By 7:30 a.m., the grave was filled in and the last
vestige of Marvin was gone like he had never been. His only legacy the horror
he had caused in our population due to his attack and what we’d had to do to
make sure he never hurt anyone again. We now had to try to heal and forget. I
wasn't sure it was possible.

December ended and January dragged
by, the foul weather kept us inside most of the time. I thought it was a good
idea to keep the amount of our activity down because the more active we were;
the more food we consumed and with the Stinkies still making it impossible for
us to leave the compound. Well, food became an issue. We had been working on a
solution to the Stinkies situation but hadn't solved it yet. I became more
depressed each day we failed to resolve the problem. We had a month and a half
of food left and if we didn't do something soon we would have to start sever
rationing and that wasn't going to be popular.

Time passed and we were slow to
get over the Marvin ordeal. People were starting to greet each other on the
streets again and the whole mood in The Dell improved. We were all still
worried about the Stinkies but they were not an immediate, in your face kind of
threat so it was almost possible to overlook them. Unless you were near the
wall where the moaning and scratching at the concrete was an ever present
reminder of what was just on the other side. Jim, Dave, and I, along with
different people whose opinions we valued met daily to discuss the problem and
possible solutions. So far, we had come up with nothing that worked.

I thought we had solved the
problem early in January when the really cold weather started. On the morning
of the third we tried what I thought was the best idea so far. That morning
dawned windy and very, very cold. It was well below the freezing mark and the Stinkies
were virtually immobile. A group of us went out with the intent of destroying
the frozen Stinkies and barely avoided a disaster.

We had incorrectly assumed that if
they were mostly frozen, they wouldn't be able to attack us and it would be a
simple matter to just walk up and club their brains out. We managed to kill
several of the things before they overcame their frozen state and attacked us.
The cold did save us in a way though. We were all wearing bulky clothing in
order to stay warm and the few bites we received trying to get back inside the
compound didn't penetrate to skin. Another lesson learned. Thankfully, this one
hadn't cost much beyond having a few years of our lives scared out of us.

The main issue was there were
simply too many of them to destroy with the weapons we had. If it had been a
couple of hundred spread out around the compound it wouldn't have been that big
a problem. But there were nearly three thousand of the things scratching and
scrabbling at the wall trying to get inside. We couldn't handle that many. If
we didn't come up with something soon though, they would win. All they had to
do was wait and they were good at that. We eventually had to come out to find
food and that would be all the chance they needed.

And that's the situation we were
in when on the morning of the sixteenth things changed. I've always heard it
said that the night is always darkest before the dawn and our night was pretty
dark when the sun finally popped out in the guise of more new arrivals. But
these weren't ordinary half-starved barely alive survivors. No, these folks
arrived with teeth of their own.

We were having our usual morning
meeting in Jim's office. Dave and I were there along with L.B. Davenport and
once again the topic being discussed was the smelly, decomposing horde outside
the wall. Dave's radio came to life with a message from the guards at the front
gate. They asked that we come to the gate, there were vehicles coming. In
answer to our question of what kind of vehicles, we were told military. Dave
and I looked at each other with surprised looks and headed for the gate.

As we neared the gate, I could see
smoke rising from several different areas and I could hear cheering coming from
the guards in the tower beside the gate. I climbed up to the tower as soon as I
arrived and a most amazing sight greeted me. Four vehicles had emerged through
the cut on the east end of the valley. The second and third vehicles in line
were an armored car, such as is used to transport money and a Humvee similar to
the ones we had. It was the first and last vehicles that caught my attention.
Both were the seven ton version of the standard military transport truck. They
had armored cabs and instead of the normal canvas covered bed, these had an
armor sided bed. They were painted tan and quite large but what had my
attention was mounted at the front of the troop compartment. It appeared to be
some type of water cannon that had been modified.

As I watched, the cannon in the
lead vehicle discharged a long gout of flame and immolated a group of six Stinkies.
The zombies continued to shuffle toward the truck engulfed in flame for a few
seconds before they finally crumpled to the ground and stopped moving. The
truck crept forward a few yards until it was in range of another group of Stinkies.
Once again the flame erupted from the cannon and again the group went down.
This kept up until they reached the first barriers of the serpentine leading to
the gate.

They were close enough now that I
could see the person working the flame cannon. He appeared to be a large
fellow, well over six-feet and fairly muscular. Where ever he had been he had
not endured the lack of food the rest of us had. He wore old style woodland
pattern camouflage utilities and had a headset on with a microphone in front of
his mouth. He raised one hand from the weapon he directed and waved at us in
the tower. I waved back and he went back to burning the Stinkies.