I walked down to the center and looked at the woman who had spoken. She was a thin blonde with a decent figure, dressed in a threadbare sundress that barely covered her. She looked at me with large brown eyes that had seen a lot of nasty things in recent times.
“I’m not with them,” I said, noting the stir that caused. Several women stood up and came to the doors of their cages, holding the chain links and looking at Tommy and me with new eyes. I imagine we looked different than what they were used to. I was dressed for combat in my jacket, cargo pants, and vest, festooned with weapons. Tommy was similarly dressed.
“Who are you?” The woman’s voice lost its disinterested drawl and became much more alert, more hopeful.
I thought for a second. “I’m John Talon. This is Tommy Carter. I’m here to kill the sons of bitches that slaughtered a family and terrorized the towns around here. I didn’t expect to find anyone here worth saving, but I guess I was wrong. If you want to leave, you’re coming with us right now.”
The women rushed the doors of their cages and in short order we had freed them from their prisons. After being hugged and kissed several times, I told them to get to the stores and help themselves to whatever they wanted. Several grabbed bottles of water and headed off to the corner to wash up, while others picked through the clothing for more appropriate attire. While we were waiting for the women to get their fill of food and water, as well as being washed and dressed, Maggie, the woman who first spoke to me, filled me in on what had happened and what was going on around here.
The men had descended on the towns like thunder, sweeping through and taking whatever they wanted, including women. When they met resistance, they killed the dissenters and cowed the rest. They took the women back to this complex and kept them in these cages to be used however the men felt fit. No women were allowed in the “command center” as the men called it. The leader, a man called Art, was as ruthless as they came, killing with impunity any who crossed him. His favorite method of dealing with dissent was to release someone out into the yards where a few zombies were allowed to roam freely. The hapless victim would run themselves ragged until eventually being torn apart by the zombies while Art and his cronies watched from the rooftop. The zombies had their throats cut, so they couldn’t moan and warn their victims. The women couldn’t go anywhere if they got out of their cages, since the zombies would get them, too.
“Sounds like this Art guy is a real sweetie,” I said to Maggie.
“He’s a bastard,” Maggie said around a mouthful of dried apricots. “And he’s gotten meaner since his brother was killed on a raid.”
Well, well. Now I knew I had the right place. I waved Tommy over from his discussions with two other women and filled him in on what I had been told.
Tommy nodded. “Sounds like what I had been hearing as well. What do you want to do about it? We can’t find bikes for all these women and some of them are in bad shape, needing medical attention. We can’t fight ‘cause some of them will get killed for sure. I don’t want to run, but I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Tommy had good points. As much as it galled me not to be able to put a bullet in Art’s face, I had another job to do. I walked outside for a second and looked over the area. From where I was standing, I could see a fairly large crowd of zombies wandering around the outside fence. That wasn’t too much of a concern, since zombies were usually easily distracted. But transportation was my big problem. I looked over to the trucks parked in front of the main building and realized suddenly that I could do both.
I went back into the building and outlined my plan to Tommy. He looked at me like I was nuts, but as the plan unfolded, he got a grin on his face that got wider as I explained further.
We waited for the lights in the building to die down, Maggie explaining that the men talked about plans and such before going to bed. They were not allowed to visit the women every night, since Art believed that the men had to “Earn their Turn” as he called it. The more loot a man produced, the more action he could get.
When the last light was out, Tommy and I ran around the front of the building and inspected the trucks. The only one that had the keys in it was the smallest one, a Chevy S-10. Cursing my luck again, we pushed the truck over the grass and near the building. I was dubious about all of the women being able to fit in the truck, but Maggie assured me that they would find a way, even if they had to lay on top of each other. I could understand their desire to get away. I was disappointed that we couldn’t take any of the stores, but if things went well we could always come back and get them. I was interested in seeing if this power station could be restarted, but that would have to wait.
Tommy and I trotted towards the fence for the second part of my plan. We split up as we passed another building, with me ducking behind it and moving towards the far edge. I looked out as Tommy approached the fence, exciting the glowing-eyed ghouls on the other side. He moved slowly down the fence, drawing the crowd away, taunting and waving at them. When he had led his undead groupies away, I ran to the fence and opened the railway gates, an opening that allowed a small train to pull into the yard. I secured the gates open and ran back to the harem building.
“Okay ladies, let’s get going,” I said as I reached into my pack and pulled out a couple of flares. Maggie looked at me quizzically, but didn’t say anything. I went over to the main admin building and opened a side door. I sparked the flare and stuck it in the sand next to the door. I ran back to the truck and climbed in. The truck bed was dangerously low, but we had to risk it. I started the engine and pulled away from the building, wincing as I hit unseen bumps and dips. I heard squeaks and gasps as knees and elbows bumped the truck bed walls. When I reached the train opening, I parked the truck and waited. About a minute later, Tommy came running in out of the darkness.
“They’re coming! They’re about to round the bend!” he panted as he jumped into the cab.
I stepped out and lit the second flare, planting it in the ground in the middle of the opening. The zombies would flock to the light and find their way in to the compound. The second flare would draw them to the open door to the gang and to dinner. With the men sleeping, they would likely wake up as zombies in the morning.
Not a perfect plan and there was a possibility that Art and his men would be able to regain control, but they would be severely weakened. I personally hoped Art got his nuts chewed off while another lovely nibbled his face away.
We pulled away from the compound, following a maintenance road that paralleled the railroad. I didn’t want to go too quickly, since I couldn’t afford a blowout. We reached the main road that went in front of the power plant and turned left, heading back to Coal City. I figured our little foray was finished. Charlie was probably sleeping in a nice bed, after a good meal. Oh well. Glancing in the rearview mirror, Maggie caught my eye and smiled.
Okay, I thought, it was worth it.
We drove quietly through the night, passing the occasional zombie or two, but nothing that was really a threat. Tommy was looking over the map, and glanced at the speedometer.
“I figure we have about twenty miles to go to get us to Coal City,” Tommy said. “If we stay at this speed, we should be there in about an hour.”
I looked at the dashboard. “No we won’t.”
“What? Why?” Tommy looked over and saw what I had seen. “You gotta be kidding me.”
“Nope. We’re almost out of gas.” I shook my head as the empty light came on, indicating I had a gallon of gas left in the tank.
Fifteen miles later, the S-10 gave a lurch. I knew what that meant and increased the speed of the truck, figuring to coast as long as I could. With a final surge, the truck shut down, coasting to a stop. We had turned north at Mazon, skirting the death field, and were sitting on Route 47, according to the map. We had roughly six miles to go. If it was just Tommy and me, it would have been feasible, but trying to herd sixteen unarmed, untrained women through the dark made it mission unbelievable.
But we didn’t have any choice. We couldn’t stay where we were, since the ghouls would be able to find us and there was not a farmhouse in sight. We had to go, and go now, since I was sure we had attracted the attention of a lot of the local dead with our truck driving. Even though I had run with the lights off, the noise was such that it carried a good distance out here.
We got the women off the truck and I was grateful to see that all of them had managed to get some sort of footwear. I had no illusions about being able to carry someone for six miles. The wind was dying down and the moon was finally cresting high in the sky, casting a pale light over the landscape. Cornstalks rustled in the wind, causing Tommy and I to finger our weapons and glance around. We needed to move.
I took point, walking in front of the women, while Tommy brought up the rear. We had the women walk in a single file line down the middle of the road, the reason being if something came out of the fields in the center of the line, there would be a few seconds to react and deal with it.
We walked for about an hour, passing by two farm houses. I didn’t bother to stop and look around or even consider them as a stopping point for the night. White flags fluttered in the night breeze from the lonely mailboxes by the side of the road, indicating these homes’ surrender to the disease.
It wasn’t until the fifth mile that we saw our first zombie. He was moving down the center of the road, ambling along as if he owned it. He was pretty tall for a zombie, roughly six foot three, with broad shoulders and long arms. At the sight of him, several of the women gasped, but to their credit, they didn’t scream. I limbered up my pickaxe and advanced on the ghoul who hissed as he saw me and moved quickly forward.
Damn. A fast one. His success as a zombie was evident by the copious amount of dried blood about his face and hands. His shirt was filthy with blood. As he reached out I ducked aside and swung my pickaxe as hard as I could. The chisel end connected solidly with the Z’s knee, cracking it and tumbling the large zombie to the ground. It tried to stand up, but its leg buckled and wouldn’t support it. A large hand reached out to grasp me as I got closer and I used a baseball swing to crush the skull of the ghoul at the temple. He went down with all the grace of a falling tree and I hooked his belt with the pickaxe. It was a trial trying to get this thing into the ditch, since he weighed over two fifty if he weighed an ounce.
The women cautiously moved forward. Maggie approached me as I wiped off my weapon.
“You’ve done that before, I guess?” she asked, looking down at the body.
“Yes.” I was getting tired and was not in the mood for conversation. Any further explanation would have been pointless and likely last until morning. We needed to move.
I figured we had two miles to go and the horizon was starting to look a little lighter. I started walking again and Maggie fell back in line, understanding the need to continue.
We walked for another half hour, passing field after field. It wasn’t until I began to see homes closer together that I realized we were nearing Coal City. Staying on the road, we passed the high school, and I could swear I saw a zombie wandering around the running track.
We stopped at a restaurant that had a beer garden and made our way inside. The garden had several tables and a wrought iron fence that enclosed it. Tommy did a quick check of the premises and declared it clear. Exhausted women collapsed on the tables and chairs, several of them lying out on the floor. I stretched out on a table and Tommy sat next to me.
“We going in?” Tommy wanted to know.
I closed my eyes. “Not ‘til morning. We don’t need to wake anybody just yet.”
Tommy just nodded, then nodded off. I spent a moment with a lighter, burning the virus out of the strap on my backpack.
I was nearly asleep when a felt a touch at my shoulder. My eyes popped open and I looked into the startled face of Maggie, who was looking down the barrel of my SIG.
“Sorry about that,” I said, putting the weapon back in its holster.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” Maggie said. “We figured our lives were over until you and Tommy came.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, closing my eyes.
In the morning, Tommy and I went over to the wall and shouted until someone noticed us. I climbed the ladder and spoke with one of Harlan’s deputies, conveying our needs and leaving him to alert the rest of the town. In short order, Tommy was leading the women to the main gate, with a lot of people gawking at what we had accomplished. Sarah gave me a fierce hug and when she saw the chewed-on strap of my backpack, she looked into my eyes and started to cry. I didn’t have anything to say, I just held her close.
After the women had been taken in, thanks to the arrangements made by Sarah and the women of Coal City, I gathered our band together. Charlie had arrived early in the morning, riding nice and easy in a comfortable truck on the railroad tracks. After hearing what Tommy and I had gone through, he muttered something about the luck of fools again and thumped me for nearly getting killed.
We were heading out today, going back to Leport. We had a long way to go and with the stars in proper alignment, we’d make it without incident. I told Sheriff Harlan about our plans and he wished us luck, thanking us for all we had done. He promised to stay in touch and we would be setting up some sort of regular communications soon. As it was, several towns were now in contact thanks to our work on the rails and with good fortune, we’d be able to get more going.
As we gathered our things for the trip north, I reflected on what this trip had cost us. We lost three people, but we gained several towns. I’d take that any day.
We drove out of Coal City to the waves and gratitude of the town. I felt good about what we had managed to do, but I knew we had other things to take care of first. One thing had been nagging me for a while, ever since Tom Harlan had mentioned his brother.
Where was my brother? The question would not leave me alone, and when we got back to Leport, I intended to do something about it.
After I spent a lot of time with Jake and Sarah.