End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle (20 page)

             
“Hello Grace,” I said when I got to her.

             
“Tanya.”

             
“Not signing up for anything?”

             
“Don’t have to. You obviously want me on security and I can deal with horses if you get them.”

             
“Can we have a chat alone please?”

             
Grace smiled. Even though she acted nicer, that smile oozed of sarcasm.

              We met in the room I been using as a bedroom though it probably won’t be for long. It was a nice room with a canopy bed, wood furniture and plenty of space. Fucking white people and their need for giant rooms. Least we could squeeze a few people in here. I had no idea who Jim would give me as a roommate. When we first got here, people crashed where they could.

             
The cats were staying here until everything settled. First day they were enemies, now they are becoming BFF’s. Kinda like us.

When we came in they were both curled up next to each other. I petted Idiot a few times and she rolled on her back and began purring. I didn’t have a pet growing up, my mother was scared of cats, claimed they were the devil and thought dogs were a hassle, she wouldn’t even get me somethin’ small like a hamster or fish, so I never thought bout getting one when I grew up. I petted Chinakitty to be fair. She rubbed my hand but probably wished I was Aisha.

              Grace ignored the cats and sat in an old brown rocking chair in the corner and rested her rifle next to her. She didn’t say anything but began rocking. She looked bored like she always did. Her blond hair was tied back with a purple scrunchy. Probably tacky for rich white bread.

             
“I’ll make this short. It would look bad on me if I do any special favors ‘cept maybe for the old folks. I got enough old people helping in the kitchen so that ain’t a problem if you don’t wanna do it. It’s the farm work. You gotta do your share. No excuses. You ain’t disabled or old. You can go if you won’t do it--”

             
“All right.”

             
I thought I heard wrong. I expected her to be as stubborn as a rat, complain that being the best shooter meant she can’t do anything else. Even after she gave up pill popping it was hard to get her to do manual labor.

             
“What?”

             
“I didn’t peg you as deaf. I will help with the farm—“ she did her strange giggle. “Do my share.”

             
I ignored the insult. “Was it my speech? Was it good?”

             
“No, it was terrible. Ask Jim to write your speeches. He knows what he’s doing.”

             
“So you’ll do your tasks?”

             
“I knew a time would come where I had to get my hands dirty. As long as you know if I’m in the field, I won’t be able to be on call to shoot.” I almost rolled my eyes on how stuck up that sounded.             

“That’s okay. You’re gonna still mostly be doing guard work but to get this farm working and we need all the abled bodied people we can find.”

              “All right.” She stood up, and nabbed the rifle placing it on her back. “Is that all, may I go?”

             
“Yes.” She got up and left the room. That was painfully easy.

              At 1:30 Jim gave me the list of housing for my final approval.

             
“One change,” I said after I looked over it. Jim made himself my roommate which was fine and we’d be staying in the room I was already in. He put Eric alone in the bunkhouse which confirmed they had broken up. It must have happened last night.

             
“What?”

             
“Grace needs to be away from Eric. Put one of them in the main house.”

             
“He’s in room 1, she’s in room 10. Ten is right by a backdoor. One is right by the front. She doesn’t even have to see him.”

             
“In the night, in the bathroom, going to the main house, going to the cantina.”

             
“It’s better than the boat. Besides he didn’t even say anything on his card, only he preferred a room alone. Grace did the same. We didn’t have enough people for a lottery. So everyone who wanted a room alone in the bunkhouse got one. This is a compromise. If either have any problems, they know the options.”

             
I looked over the paper again. “It’s a little cliquish, ain’t it?”

             
“People want to be with people they know. You’re with me, aren’t you? Henry’s with Dave. We’ll get used to each other. Besides the people from the government camp have only been with us a few days.”

             
“We’ll all get along—“ I paused. “Sorry about you and Eric.”

             
Jim gave a half-smile. “I knew it was going to happen. He did it before I could. Said he’s moving on. That’s it. I didn’t argue. I wish he would let go of his anger with Grace. She did the right thing.”

             
“Anger’s hard to let go off, especially when it comes to a loving mother. They don’t have to get along but I don’t want any trouble. Eric knows that, right?”

             
“I hope.” I accepted that answer for now.

             
“Glad you hooked up with Manny.”

             
“No big thing right now. I have no intention of being in a serious relationship for a least a year.”

             
“Hang underwear on the door if you need privacy.”

             
“I expect you to do the same.” I laughed.

             
I saw Felicia and figured this was a good time to talk about Keith who I told not to come to the meeting. He was in his room in the bunkhouse which Jim already assigned before anyone else. I told him to wait for me and I would bring Felicia to talk.

             
I made my way over to the medical table where she sat with Hannah.

             
“Hi Hannah, can I nab Felicia for a sec?”

             
“Sure,” Hannah said. “It’s not like we’re mobbed with people.” I reminded myself later that if I didn’t get enough people for medical, I would volunteer some.

             
Felicia looked bored like she didn’t want to do anything but she stood up. “Where to?”

             
“Bunkhouse.”

             
Felicia followed me through the house. We had left the meeting room and went into the living room the size of a city block. It was filled with fancy and uncomfortable couches. Fucking rich folks.

The house had a large foyer the seemed like fucking a mile to get across. The foyer led to stairs which went to the second and third floor bedrooms. After the foyer on the right side was another large room Jim planned for communication and council meetings had been the house dining room, behind it was a large kitchen. That led to another door to the servant’s quarters. There were 11 rooms in all, each with four bunk beds.

At the end of the hall was another door that led to the large cantina with a kitchen and three vending machines that Ricky had broke open and got all the food and soda. Ricky said the farm workers ate in the cantina.

             
Felicia didn’t ask what was going on. She never showed any feelings but Jim told me she was guilty over the deaths of her people.

             
I got to room six and knocked.

             
“It’s open,” I heard Keith’s voice. I opened the door and found Keith sitting on a chair next to the bunkbeds reading a book. His taped glasses were at the edge of his nose.

             
Felicia looked at Keith with no emotion then said. “What name are you using here?”

             
“Keith,” he said, without a beat.

             
Felicia looked at me. “And you know the truth about him?”

             
“That he’s a carrier?”

             
“Or immune.”

             
I shook my head. “Rachel wasn’t.”

             
She ignored me and looked at him. “Are you okay, Keith?”

             
Keith shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not being mistreated. Tanya’s nice to me. Said I could stay.”

             
“Keith thinks hunters are out to kill carriers. We can’t let Keith’s secret out. Are you the only one who knows about him?”

             
“Manny knows. I told no one else.”             

“Until that man showed up asking too many questions.”

              Felicia looked at Keith. “I thought you should stay, but Manny thought it was a risk. Not that we wanted you to go. It was dangerous whether you stayed or went.” Again, no emotion in her voice. Was this somethin’ I looked forward too? Both Felicia and Rachel had no fucking feelings.

             
“It’s okay,” he said. I knew it wasn’t. We met Felicia last May and Keith in December and he had left the camp before we came. I’m not schooled so good, but Keith was terrorized when we found him and that was a long time since he left the camp.

             
“Keith—something you ain’t telling us?”

             
Keith looked spooked. He put his book faced down on the bunk bed next to him.

             
“He left the camp when?” I looked at Felicia.

             
“March,” she said.

             
I looked back to Keith. “We found you in December, terrified of hunters.”

             
Keith didn’t say anything.

             
“Out with it Keith. I ain’t playing.” I let a little anger enter my voice.

             
“After I left the camp, I found a houseful of people. Nice ones. They didn’t like that I was a kid on my own.” He paused. “Two of the hunters came. I never told anyone what I was. They said they never met any carriers. I split that night.” He took a deep breath. “A few months later found another house—“ He stopped for a long time.

             
“One of them came again. Just one this time but from before. He remembered me from the other house. Told him I didn’t like the house and left. But somehow he put two and two together. When I tried to slip away, he was there.”

             
Keith didn’t say anything more. He no longer looked spooked but terrified.

             
“It’s okay,” I said, touching his shoulder. Felicia didn’t move.

             
“I killed him before he could kill me.”

             
I was stunned silent. Keith looked like he weighed 90 pounds. He seemed like a good shy kid, not a killer.

             
“I didn’t want to do it,” he said and he began to cry. “I was gonna run from him, but he had a gun— Some people came out of the house and tried to stop him. He shot one of them. That’s when I grabbed the gun and killed him. I ran off. After, I figured it would be better if I just stayed away from people until I meet you. I was so lonely then—my family was dead. My parents, my kid sister, they were all gone—Tanya I want to stay, but I’ll go if there’s trouble.”

             
“Same things stands as before, Keith. I don’t like it but I ain’t gonna cast you out for something that ain’t your fault.” I looked at Felicia. “You tell Manny to keep his mouth shut.”

             
“Okay.”

             
I don’t know what bugged me more that Keith was a killer or that Felicia didn’t respond at all to it.

Chapter 14

             
It took a few weeks to settle, get into a routine and get friendly. Five old people volunteered
to cook meals. Mike and Henry set up some chemical toilets for the lines at the bathroom. The weather got warm and sometimes we could shower in the rain.

             
Mike let Bob Bam know where we was. Told him we needed skilled workers, farm hands and somebody would be waiting in Greenport every Tuesday at 10am. Mike’s gone three times and found no one.

People settled into their rooms and routines. Nobody complained ‘cept one person. It wasn’t Eric or Grace but Dena. No shock there. She wanted her own space but I ain’t gonna get between a father and kid. Long as she showed up for work, she can fight it out with Mike all she wants.

              The priest’s group hadn’t shown up yet. Having a bunch of boys would really help. I thought farming would be easy. You put the seeds in the ground, wait a few months, and then, food.

             
No fucking way.

             
You gotta break that shit up. With a hoe. A stick with a five pound weight on the end. Blisters, back ache, everything. At least you get your anger out on the dirt. You gotta clear all these fucking rocks that come out of nowhere. I ain’t looking forward to the weeds, pests and harvesting.

             
Besides getting the farm ready, we had to clear the island of dead bodies, root out the zombs, set up some kind of perimeter fence which was proving to be harder than Jim thought.

Jim
created a grid map and got volunteers, those who could shoot or wasn’t scared shitless of zombies. So far we’ve killed about 12 zombs and buried or burned about 100 victims. We ain’t found anyone living.

             
Dave got the solar panels up in running. Three in all, one we bought and two at the farm. Mike had a little generator he bought from his store. We didn’t have a lot of electricity but enough for some lights and to run a small fridge. When we searched we also looked for solar panels and supplies like generators.

             
Yesterday Mike took me to the preserve. We wanted to see if Joel was on the island but it looked like he wasn’t.

             
It was amazing and beautiful. I made the decision right then and there we ain’t ever gonna touch it, not for nothing. He said we needed to hunt for food, but I told him outside the preserve. He joked that the entire country was becoming a preserve. I told him we had to do things different this time. Not use up so much stuff. He said I listened to Jim too much. Told him that was a good thing.

             
Last week, Mike, Keith and Felix investigated the local supermarket, found it smelled nasty and filled with vermin. They found two labs suits and collected canned food which were in better shape. After a cleaning out all they could, they set the place on fire cause of the rats, once the food was gone, they would head to our fields, A burning smell filled the air for two days and we still got some rats in the fields. Mike used them for target practice.

             
Today I was clearing a group of houses with Annemarie, and three men from the government camp, Stan, Paul, and Larry. We made a pyre in someone’s big back yard and would burn the bodies after we gathered them.

             
The guys from the government camp were impressed I came out with them, Felicia apparently hid in the main house at the camp and now she hid in the house here. Starting to understand why so many people went with Joel.

             
We entered the first house. Jim said there the town had a population of about 2,500 not including summer tourists. I don’t know how many residents stayed or tried to escape. The ferry was docked, not trashed like the one in Port Jeff.

             
We’re gonna hit houses as much as possible. With billions of bodies worldwide, it was like a fucking mountain but we had to start somewhere. I was sure most people would decay where they died.

             
The first house didn’t smell, so I didn’t think there was bodies. We had to do this quick, so three of us ran upstairs, searched each room, then came down. Three people did the same in the basement while one person usually Annemarie stayed outside and kept watch.             

             
When we finished we’d paint the doors. This one got a white O. We got three symbols, O meant empty, X meant still had bodies and T meant we found bodies but dumped them. O houses got left empty until our population grew. This was in case the owners ever came back, but I figured if the house was empty, they went the hospital and died. There was no hospital on Harbor, it was in Greenport.

             
As we walked to the next house but I stopped and put my hand up to make people shut up ‘cause I heard something.

             
It was a tapping sound like a keyboard but it was much louder. I looked at Dave, he hunched her shoulders.

             
“It’s a typewriter,” Annemarie said.

             
“A typewriter?” I’ve never heard a typewriter in real life. In movies and TV and stuff like Mad Men.

             
I followed the sound to a two-story beach house. I could see the ocean from here. The place was l clean and swept, with upstairs windows opened.

             
“Hello?” I called out.

             
The typing stopped. About a minute later the door opened and a middle aged man, grey hair, winkled face, wearing glasses and holding a lit cigarette, came out. The cigarette smelled pungent and stale.

             
“Are you from the government?”

             
“No.”

             
“Are you cannibals?”

             
I laughed. “No, we just settled at the manor house and doing some body cleaning when we heard your typewriter—“

             
“Hey,” Annemarie said. “Aren’t you Steven Jack?”

             
The man smiled. “One and the same, been a while since I met a fan.”

             
“Who’s Steven Jack?” I asked, probably sounding like an idiot.

             
He didn’t seem upset over my stupidity. “You are probably most familiar with the Dark Age television show.”

             
“You were on it?” I didn’t watch it regularly but I knew about it. It was about a fantasy world with dragons and stuff and a bitter King with fucked up kids.

             
The man laughed. “No, I created it.”

             
“He wrote a series of books called Dark Age,” Annemarie explained. “Oh my god, Jim is going to freak.”

             
“Jim your leader?” he asked.

             
“No,” I said. “I am.”

             
He looked confused when he saw me.

             
“Gotta a problem with a sister being a leader?”

             
“No,” he said, taking a drag of the cigarette. “It’s just unusual.”

             
I could have been a hardass but I wasn’t. Jim told me I gotta not get pissed all the time. No one likes a leader that gets pissed at everything.

             
“Why didn’t you leave?”

             
“Why should I? The flu was everywhere, I either got or not. I didn’t. My agent, my handler and my ex-wife did. I pretty sure they’re gone.”

             
“And you haven’t left?”

             
“No, got wood for my fire. I got tons of canned food from the supermarket. I got some food in my root cellar, I been growing stuff in my fenced in yard and I’ve been hitting zombies with a shovel. When the electricity went out, I pulled out my Royal and kept writing.” He looked at Annemarie. “Sorry miss, it isn’t a Dark Age book. I’m afraid the latest is still trapped on my laptop. Made plenty of back up files but not a paper one.”

             
“It’s okay,” she said.

             
“You’re settling at the manor house?”

             
“Yep, there’s almost forty of us trying to get the farm up and running. You’re welcome to join.”

             
“A visit maybe, but I think I’m fine where I am.”

             
That was okay by me. “We’re trying to clean houses of the bodies.” I told him our system. “We were gonna burn them, but since you’re here, we can bury them instead.”

             
“Might be better if you put them all in a truck and bury them in a pit.”

             
“We thought about that, but decided to take things slowly. Clearing out blocks at a time. We don’t got enough people to do both.”

             
“If you could bury them that would be nice. Harbor has a small pop, you can probably bury some in the cemetery.”

             
“We’ll try. Depends on our manpower.”

             
“What about their identities?”

             
“If they got ID, we’ll keep it. If they don’t, we’re gonna try to fingerprint. Jim’s gotta a whole check list to make sure they can be identified after.”

             
“Jim sounds like a smart guy.”

             
“He is.”

             
I thought Steven would ask why Jim wasn’t in charge, instead he said. “Do you have electricity?”

             
“A little bit. We got solar power and an emergency generator. We’re looking for solar panels. We only got three right now. Figured some of the houses might have some.”

             
“They do. I know a few. I can mark houses with panels, if you give me some paint.”

             
“That would be great. You seen a lot of zombies?”

             
“Some— I would say about half the people fled, half died of the flu. There was a pretty bad outbreak in Harbor Heights. I barely got out with my life. Bring firepower if you want to clean it out.”

             
I didn’t mention we had a lot of firepower.

             
“And you can have some vegetables from my root cellar for a trade.”

             
“Sure, what do you need?”

             
“Can you power up my laptop? I want to finish my novel and print it. I’m an idiot and killed my car battery trying to run things. How about two bags of potatoes and two bags of onions to trade.”

             
“Sounds doable.”

             
“That would be amazing. You know I’ve always liked being left alone but it’s nice to have some people around.”

              When we got back I found three strangers sitting on the large fenced in porch. Seemed like a day to meet new people. One of them sat next to Jim. He looked to be in his forties, blond hair, wearing black leather pants, a black shirt and a white cowboy hat. He was chatting up Jim. People were working in the fields and a couple of them looked up when I got back and gave me a weird look. Two other men sat on chairs, their rifles strapped to their backs. They were both white, stubble, brown hair on one, black on the other, the rest was pretty generic, except the one with the black hair got a knife scar on the left side of his face. Jim seemed happy. So I guess these strangers weren’t trouble.

             
Jim saw me and stood up. I walked over to him and the stranger. Paul, Stan and Larry walked past the men and into the house without saying one word. Dave and Felix stayed outside with me but Felix looked at one of the men intently. 

             
“Tanya, may I introduce Joel.”

             
I didn’t say anything for a long time. Joel was a very good looking, older than Jim, lots of stubble but no mustache, and the cowboy look made him smoking hot. No wonder people followed him. At least now I knew why I got the weird looks.

             
“Tanya,” he said and shook my hand with a firm grip. “It’s good to put a face to the voice.”

             
“I’ve heard a lot about you. And before we chit-chat. You got two girls Aisha and Ariel with you? Are they okay?”

             
“I told Jim, they’re both fine. Keeping the home fires burning. I didn’t want to bring them, not yet. I had to make sure you were here.”

             
“This is Dave,” I said, moving my hand towards him. “And Felix.”

             
Felix shook his hand, but he was staring at one of the men Joel was with. Did he know him?

             
“Joel used to know Rachel,” Jim said.