Z14 (Zombie Rules) (45 page)

             
“How are you, Zach? That wound on your cheek is healing nicely.” Captain Steen said as he shook my hand. He was right. Julie had done a wonderful job of aligning it properly when she glued it together.

“I’m doing well. You look like a man with a lot of weight on his shoulders.” I replied. He smiled tightly and looked around.

“You’ve brought a lot of company.” He commented.

“I have, and we’ve brought some fresh fish, venison, and vegetables. Bo over there
said he’s pretty good on the grill. I hope you brought an appetite with you.”

“It sounds much better than Army chow.
” He said.

Corporal Alexander
hurried over to us as quickly as the extra weight would allow him. We shook hands and then he leaned forward.

“Holy shit, Zach,” He said in a loud whisper. “Where did all of these women come from?” Julie had walked up beside him and overheard him. She giggled.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to all of them. Leave your gear here.” She hooked her arm through his and led him off.

“Julie,” I said, stoppin
g her in her tracks. “Maybe Terry would like to say hello to Andie first?” I gestured in an expression I hoped she would understand. She did, and nodded at me.

I turned my attention back to Captain Steen
. “You don’t have the usual complement of soldiers today. Where’d the pilots fly off to?”

“I have a makeshift office set up in that hangar.” He said, pointing at the first of three han
gars. “Why don’t we go check it out?” He waited until we were in his office before speaking.

“Zach, there’s no way to say this diplomatically. We will be unable to relocate any people to Fort Campbell at this time.” He looked at me somberly.

“Has something happened?” I asked.

“There has been some social
unrest among the civilians, and some desertions.” He sighed. “It hasn’t been pretty. In fact, there have been several we have banished.”

“I see.” I said. “Julie and I pumped these women up about relocating. They’re going
to be disappointed. Rowdy will be ecstatic though, he’s got a thing for one of the women.” Some of the women were pleasant to be around, but I couldn’t wait for Wanda to get the hell out of my neighborhood.

“There is some more unpleasant news, I’m afraid.” He said. I looked at him closely.
“Howard was killed in an unfortunate set of circumstances.” He looked at me somberly.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It would seem his two sons were concealing handguns. When they got to their new home, the youngest one pulled the handgun out of his pants and handed it to his father. The weapon discharged, striking Howard in the chest.”

Captain Steen could have punched me in the gut and it wouldn’t have been any worse than what he had just told me. He looked at me hard.

“Mrs. Allen blames you. She said you insisted they keep their firearms.” Captain Steen said, and continued staring at me. I reluctantly nodded. He took a long deep breath before speaking again.

“Zach, you are a remarkable young man. You have a highly ordered mind and the adversity we face has brought out the natural leadership a
bility in you. If the world was a normal place, I’d get you enrolled in an ROTC scholarship program. You’d be a great officer, with the right tutelage. But your major problem is inexperience. You assumed these kids would handle those weapons in a safe manner. You assumed Howard would have ensured those handguns would have been unloaded.” Captain Steen took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.

“You seem to be
indirectly saying I fucked up.” I said.

“
Yes, I am.” He replied.

The rebellious teenager in me wanted to stand up and tell him to go fuck himself.
I couldn’t do it though. He was right. If I had inspected the weapons myself, or if I had personally taken the time to train Derry…

“Point taken.”
I said quietly.

“The point I believe you are missing is my order of no firearms possessed by civilians. Howard would still be alive if you guys had deferred to my doctrine
, and to my wisdom.”

“You’ll be pleased to know, none of these women are armed, as far as I know. Maybe you better search them.”
I retorted sarcastically.

Captain Steen sighed. “It doesn’t matter. They won’t be going to Fort Campbell, at least not anytime soon.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Some soldiers and civilians basically conspired to take over. It was an ill-conceived plan concocted by a few idiots who thought they knew how to better run thing
s. It was doomed from the start. Nevertheless, a few people were killed. Fortunately, Corporal Alexander was our inside mole. He exposed the plot and we were able to contain collateral damage.”

“How many were involved?” I asked.

“Five soldiers and about a dozen civilians.” Captain Steen looked me in the eye. “The soldiers were tried for treason and executed. The civilians were banished. I directed them to head north and get out of this area altogether, but I’ve no idea where they’ve gone.” We were interrupted by Julie and Andie. They had fixed us a plate of food and brought them in. They seemed to sense the tension in the air, so they left, knowing I’d tell them everything later. Captain Steen waited for them to leave before continuing.

“Although we were successful
in quashing this ill-conceived act, there is a growing discontent among the remaining civilians. Until we can bring things under control, I’m not comfortable accepting any new incoming personnel.” I heard the sound of the Chinook returning.

“
There is something else I’d like to talk to you about. Due to Corporal Alexander’s role in the whole affair, he has received death threats, and someone took a shot at him last night while he was on guard duty.” Captain Steen paused a moment before adding. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to leave him with you people for a little while.”

“Of course.”
I said. I knew of at least one person who was going to like this situation greatly. “Is there anything else?” I asked.

“No, I think we’ve covered it for now.” He stopped as he was putting his glasses back on. “Oh, let’s go talk to the pilots. When we were flying down here, one of them thought he saw some signs of life along the I-24 corridor. Let’s eat and then we’ll see what they have to say.”

             
We ate our lunch, mostly in silence. I was still trying to wrap my head around the death of Howard, and the more I thought about it, the more intense the feelings of guilt. By the time I walked out of the hangar, I was in a deep funk. Julie saw it immediately of course. I put my arm around her and walked her over to the truck.

             
“I don’t want to ruin your day, but I know you’re going to pester me until I tell you.”

             
“You got that right.” She said. So, I told her. Her response was predictable and she started crying. I held her tightly. I saw Rowdy walk over and stop tentatively. I shook my head. He understood and walked back to the main group.

             
The Birmingham women, especially Wanda, did not take the news well when they were told they would not be going to Fort Campbell. Frankly, I didn’t care. I’d already decided my contact with them was going to be limited. I didn’t like Wanda, and Kelly was going to get me into trouble. Andie was excited that Corporal Alexander was coming to live with us though. Julie and I exchanged a glance. We’d let her enjoy the day and tell them about Howard’s death later.

             
We had three days of drizzling rain, which is not unusual for March. With the daily temperature hovering in the mid-sixties, it was great weather for planting certain vegetables. Our garden plots were much larger than last year and we’d added to the number of vegetables. With the five of us working, we transferred the seedlings from the greenhouse and got them in the ground in record time. Corporal Alexander, or Terry as we now called him, proved to be a hard worker. He helped with the chores and had no trepidation about getting down in the mud and individually hand planting each seedling. He got along well with both Andie and Julie, but I had not spoken to him very much. Julie chastised me about it the night before.

             
The truth of it, I was not in a sociable mood since the latest meeting with Captain Steen. Howard’s death upset me greatly. It was yet another person whom I cared for deeply who was no longer with us. I felt guilty about Rick’s death, Macie’s death, and now Howard’s death. It ate at me and was yet another topic of my nightmares.

“What is everyone going to do today?” I asked as we cleaned off the table.

“Well Hoss, I told Cindy I’d take her squirrel hunting.” Rowdy said.

“Is that what it’s called these days?” Julie quipped. Terry and I
chuckled. Andie didn’t say anything, only stared out the window.

“What is my husband
going to do today?” Julie asked.

“
I thought I’d go over to Bernie’s and get some honey, and then maybe do some scavenging.” Julie gave me a look. I knew what it meant. “Terry, how about going with me? I’ll show you around and you can get an idea of how we do things.”

“Sure, sounds
good, Zach.” He replied.

“I want to go!” Andie said.

“Have you finished your reading assignments?” I asked. Andie frowned and stuck her tongue out at me.

“We’ll go another time.” I promised.

“Terry, I’ve no idea what ki
nd of training you’ve had, but we have a certain method of clearing houses.” I said as we parked in front of Bernie’s house. “This house belonged to a friend of ours. He’s dead. We can do some practicing here so we’ll be on the same sheet of music.”

“Sounds good
, Zach. We did a hell of a lot of house clearing back at Fort Campbell, so we should be good to go.”

Surprisingly, Terry and I worked well together.
I watched Terry as we went through the motions of clearing Bernie’s house. Even though it was filled with clutter, Terry moved fluidly through each room. Satisfied, I found a tote bin in the utility closet and began loading up Bernie’s beekeeping equipment. Terry saw several jars of honey sitting on the kitchen counter.

“This old man was a beekeeper, huh?” He asked.
I nodded. He pointed at the honey. “How old is this stuff? Is it good anymore?”

I stopped
a moment and was tempted to wow Terry with my vast knowledge of honey. But, I held off.

“When honey is stored under proper conditions, it can last for years. It’s still good,
let’s load it up.” We carried the stuff to the truck and I looked around outside.

“He sure did have a lot of junk.” Terry said.

“Yeah, one day we’ll go through it all with a fine tooth comb and see if there is anything worth taking.”

“We can do it now.” The Corporal suggested. I shook my head.

“I’m not up for it now.” I said. “His death reminds me of Howard’s death, which reminds me of other people who have died.”

Terry nodded somberly. “I know the feeling. I take it he was a pretty good dude?”

I let out a short laugh. “He was downright crazy, but crazy in a good way I’d say.” I pointed at the protective headgear. “He didn’t even use any protection when he harvested the honey. The bees wouldn’t sting him. He’d say they were his friends and would never hurt him.” Terry laughed. “Well, let’s get going. I’ve got a few places I’d like to check out.”

Terry spoke to Andie on the radio as I drove. He told her we were leaving Bernie’s. Andie asked where we were going. “Tell her the Woodbine and Glenrose area.” I said. “We’ll be home before sundown.” Terry repeated what I said and signed off. I was content to drive in silence, but decided I needed to be friendly, and get to know Terry a little better.

“What happened up at Fort Campbell? Are you allowed to talk about it?” I asked.

He sighed. “I’d been in a bad mood and got into the habit of bitching and complaining a lot. One day, First Sergeant Santiago had enough of me and a couple of other soldiers, and he put us on guard duty. We stood around gate six, one of the entrances to Fort Campbell, all day long doing nothing but swatting flies. I bitched and complained about everything under the sun. So, these two privates tell me about a plan a few of them have cooked up. They intended to kill the Captain, the First Sergeant, and a couple of others, and then take over.” He stopped a moment to look out the window.

“So anyway, I go to the First Sergeant and tell him all about it.
He went straight to Captain Steen. They decide for me to go along with this group and gather intel. When we thought we had identified everyone involved, we arrested them and I gave testimony in the court martial. But, instead of the other soldiers praising my actions, I was labeled a snitch. Someone fired a few rounds into my barracks window one night. The Captain and First Sergeant felt it would be safer for me to get out of Fort Campbell. They figured you wouldn’t mind me hanging around. So, here I am.”