“Jared, think about it, what was the nickname, so many people called you and your friends, The dirty dozen.” Jill said, she wasn’t sure she believed most of this, Like Gayle she had spent her life believing in neat logical constructs, her career had depended on logic and math, the undead, magic all of that might be entertaining around Halloween but it hadn’t existed and then the dead had risen shattering her world. And no one, of any faith, no matter their wealth or status, or family connections had been safe and only a few had been spared as far as they knew. She was more than willing to operate under the assumption that Gayle was on to something. What exactly she didn’t know. “I know how it sounds, but at some point, it stops being coincidence.” Jill said softly.
“So, we should what, embrace numerology, do weird convoluted math to break everything down into threes’ or multiples of three.” Jared asked bitingly. “Look, I completely agree that the zombies are dead, the walking dead, which implies there is something, supernatural, evil at work, I don’t like that thought, I am not comfortable with that thought. Hell, I don’t want to even believe that thought. Maybe, and I only say maybe, our understanding of reality is flawed and what we are seeing is something completely natural to the universe that we have no frame of reference that would explain it.” What about Billy and the other kids with their decidedly odd events, he asked himself. The logical part of him resisted thinking that there was any other explanation beyond the neurological, but there was another side, a side that was growing louder that insisted there was no natural explanation for the kid’s behavior.
Gayle chuckled at that. “you should have gotten a degree and become a professor. You’re as stubborn in your views as any Professor I have known. I was the same way, till not so long ago.”
Jared rose to his feet and paced around the room, “this has been interesting, I admit that. But even with the dead outside, I have trouble believe in all the rest.” Jared said. The implications were enough to shatter many of his beliefs if he accepted them and he couldn’t. I can accept that I had two, very weird, dreams that might be more than just dreams but some kind of ten thousand year plus war was still being waged, and he was supposed to play a part, that he couldn’t believe.
“I understand your feelings Jared, I have struggled with this like you, but you know deep down its real, or you wouldn’t have listened to the message that was sent to you or come to my place to hear what I have to say.” she rose from her chair with a grimace. “nothing has changed, you will still do what you think is right, Maybe that’s a form of destiny in and of its self.”
“rules, there are rules” Jared muttered as he hefted the book he held and looked at it thoughtfully.
“what?” Jill asked.
Gayle nodded slowly in agreement. “Something from my dream,” He said turning to look at Jill “It doesn’t matter if I believe in this,” he said lifting the book for emphasis, “The dreams, I can grudgingly accept the possibility that they were more than just dreams, the dead are a reality and Gayle is right I will do what I believe is right, and even die if I have to, to do what I see as my duty to you, to the kids, to the people that trust me to lead. The rest of this doesn’t matter at least not to me.”
He truly doesn’t realize how different he is from other people Jill thought, He really believes in duty, honor, doing what’s right, in a way that’s almost genetic. Others, myself included believe in those things but not like Jared. She had asked about his belief in Duty once and he had quoted McArthur, “Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.” Aside from being impressed at the library of quotes he knew, the utter belief in his tone as he said those words had impressed her more. I wonder if his brother is like that as well, if so I bet he is still alive out there doggedly refusing to give up.
Jared was pragmatic, but his core values never changed, and he inspired others to try and live the same way despite what society had thought and taught. In the here and know that code, that outlook on life was important.
Gayle gave her a knowing look as if she knew exactly what Jill was thinking, she hasn’t told us everything has she, I shouldn’t be surprised. I can’t even bring myself to tell Jared the whole story about my nightmares. Why should Gayle share everything she knows, or believes she knows, when her target audience was not going to listen or… or ‘there are Rules’ no wonder I always hated fantasy stories.
Gayle walked slowly over to the cabinet and took out a bottle of schnapps, “would you two like some” she asked as she poured a shot for herself. When her guests declined she took her glass and returned to her desk. She had never been a drinker, but she did like a little schnapps on occasion. She took a sip and placed the glass on the blotter.
She gazed at Jared for a long moment, almost tempted to tell him the rest. But she wouldn’t, he would not have accepted it if she had and truth to tell she still held some doubts. But he did need to hear something else, something vital.
“I have one more thing to tell you, to relay on as it were, there are others out there, with their own parts to play. But the other side has its own Servants, your opposites and I do not think all of them are alive.” She said telling him the last of it. She shivered at that last, what had been shown to her in the dream had not been pleasant. In fact, it scared the hell out of me, she thought as she sipped her Schnapps watching Jared for his reaction. At least my part in this is almost over. I only hope that in the end humanity survives.
He didn’t really react, which she found interesting, I wonder if he already suspected as a much and is playing it close to the vest.
“I know you hoped for answers, I have given you what I know, as to why its important you the book have, I can only guess as I’ve said. I can’t even tell you why I felt driven to research that topic and spent thirty years working on this. So now it’s in your hands, whatever happens with it, it is yours to discover.” She said, “and personally young man I think that whatever happens you will get those kids to safety no matter what stands in your way.” She said lifting her glass in salute.
Gayle chit chatted, with them for another ten minutes, that’s the only thing Jared could call it before she wished them luck and walked them to the door, where Graham waited outside.
As Jared stepped out, Gayle stopped him with a touch, “One more thing Jared does Anchor, chain and the Hooker mean anything to you” Gayle asked. Jared opened his mouth in surprise, but before he could answer she smiled and shut the door.
Jill gave him a look but remained silent. “I hope you heard what you came to hear” Graham said as they walked back to their waiting vehicles.
“I think that’s been a problem for a long time now, man hearing only what he wants to hear” Jared said as he climbed on the snow mobile.
✽ ✽ ✽
“Jared” Ronny said. “Could you hang on a second I need to talk to you?" Jared nodded as he shut down the snowmobile. The trip back from Cherokee had seemed longer than the trip there and he was ready to get inside, warm up and get some food in his belly.
“What’s up?” Jared asked as he removed his gear bag from the Snow mobile. Slinging it over his shoulder he turned to face Ronny.
“You know I like these folks, right?” Ronny asked. Jared nodded; pretty sure he knew exactly where Ronny was about to go. “Do you really think its wise to hand over the last five m16’s to Lloyds folks. What if we need them?"
“Ronny, I have my Commando, My Mk 23. In my kit I have an AR and an MP5sd4, two shotguns, and six other pistols, oh and my .22 and a 30 06 for hunting. You have as many weapons as I do, hell everyone but Rob and Warren do. I love hanging on to weapons. But consider the fact they have been sharing food with us, and they need to be able to protect this place. They can’t do that with Corn cobs and a couple of old weapons.”
Ronny stood there for a moment. “It’s just, I really don’t want to find out later we really needed those weapons” Jared reached across the to the othe
r snow mobile and clapped Ronny on the shoulder.
“Brother if it gets that deep and that bad, five more weapons aren’t going to make much of a difference. Besides, we will be passing a National Guard blockade on the way out come springtime. We might be able to restock a few more then.”
“All right, I had my say. That’s all I wanted.” Ronny said.
“No problem, anytime you feel the need.” Jared said meaning it. If everyone insisted that he lead them then he had no problem keeping an open-door policy.
“Now let’s get to the Cabin, I heard a rumor that there’s cornbread.” Ronny said.
Jared felt his mouth begin to water. “Pinto beans, with ham, jalapeno’s and cornbread.” Jared said almost able to taste it. “Damn those zombies, and damn whatever caused them! anything that takes away a man’s cornbread is evil.”
“Amen brother” Ronny said with a sad smile and led the way towards the largest of the Cabins.
✽ ✽ ✽
“So, you and Lenora” Clay said as Kyle entered the Rv they shared.
Kyle frowned, he was a private man and had never liked talking about his private life. It was essentially impossible to keep anything private in this group though and he as adjusting, not all that well granted but adjusting.
Lenora was a petite fifty-year-old on the Farm, who had taken a liking to Kyle and had not been shy about it much to his chagrin. “And?” he replied.
“and nothing, I’m glad for you. She’s kind of hot for her age.” Clay said. She was exotic Kyle thought agreeing, her father had been a half white Half African American and her mother had been Korean. She had inherited her mother’s Almond eyes, though Lenora’s eyes were a pale blue, straight jet-black hair and expressive oval face, coupled with golden dark brown skin, it was too dark to be a tan but to light to be considered dark, she had inherited from her father.
“Kind of?”
“well I figured you might kick my butt if I said she is really hot and spankable.” Clay said with a grin, cracking a rare joke.
Kyle grunted a laugh as he sprawled on the folding couch bed, usually it was left unfolded, which annoyed Kyle who had to fold it back into a couch to get past or crawl over it. “Probably would have” Kyle agreed then smiled for a moment.
“I have a question for you? And it’s not about Lenora” Clay said after a moment, Relieved that Clay was switching topics, Kyle relaxed slightly.
“About what?”
“Did you know Billy was in here this morning, standing by your bed.” Clay said. “I think he was sleeping walking, but he had that look on his face, the one’s the kids get sometimes.”
Kyle knew that look, everyone knew that look. It was eerie, their faces went slack and as empty as their eyes. Like no one was home, they would stare off at nothing, sometimes nod or smile and then like a switch had been thrown life flowed back into them and they would chatter away about nothing like kids did.
Kyle was not the only one that wanted to find out what was going on with them, but if asked the kids claimed not to know what the Adults were talking about.
Kyle sat up straight on the couch looking intently at Clay. “How did he even get back there, he would have had to crawl over Madoc and Chloe, one of them would have woken up.”
“well they didn’t, if they had they would have taken him back to Beth. I asked them about it.” Clay replied.
Clay usually slept where the Table was. He claimed it was easier for him to get up and down. Kyle was lucky he wasn’t sharing the only real bed in the RV but that might change sometimes in the near future. “anyway, he was just staring blankly at the bed and you, his hands clenched then said something about a man in a hat.” Clay said.
“Man in a hat?” Kyle repeated growing pale. “what exactly did he say.”
“something like the Man in the hat is coming” Clay said then shrugged “He woke up or whatever you call it when I touched him. I took him back to Beth, who is now scared crapless about sleep walking kids with the undead out there. I was going to tell you, but you were up and gone when I got back.” Clay replied. “are you okay?”
“yeah I’m fine” Kyle said. Why had Billy show up here, while I was having a nightmare about something that wore an old bowler hat that was chasing me. I should tell Jared, but who in the hell was going to believe it. I know I wouldn’t if it hadn’t happened to me, and if Jared thinks I’m losing it, no more patrols or runs and probably no weapons. Who wants a nut job carrying a gun? No, I’ll keep quiet about it, till I figure out what if anything is going on and I really hope I am going nuts.
Chapter 10
The snow mobiles came to a stop in the shadows of a stand of trees, as soon as the motors shut down a deep silence fell. Jared quickly slung his Colt Commando before he unstrapped the crossbow from the side of the snow mobile, his eyes sweeping the area for threats. His team quickly donned their gear then covered the snow mobiles with white sheets.
Jared noted deer tracks in the snow and that surprised him, he added a mental note to send out a few hunters soon. “check your buddy” he said keeping his voice low. Every one on this little jaunt had a battle buddy, if the team got split up it was safer for two people together than anyone alone. It was also too cold outside to take chances on anyone getting frost bite or suffering from hypothermia so having someone else to check over your gear was necessary.
Every bit of equipment was checked to make sure it wasn’t loose and would make an inadvertent noise, clothing was checked and adjusted to make sure it kept body heat in and the cold out. They would have to stop on a regular basis to rest and to readjust any clothing that might have shifted creating a gap that would speed up heat loss. They might not be in arctic conditions, and he wasn’t going to risk losing any one to something they could prevent.
Finally, they donned the winter covers that the seamstresses at the farm had made for them. Basically, oversized coats, made out of white sheets, and a matching pair of draw sting pants that were worn over their normal clothes. Finally, they slipped the pull over hoods lined with wool that went with the covers.
Each donned the best winter gloves they had, supplied courtesy of the outfitter shop they had hit before entering the mountains. The hoods worked well, he noted as he began to warm up. Nice work even if it was rushed, might have to see if they can make me some extra wool socks too he thought. Finally, they strapped the snowshoes that Lloyd had dug up somewhere. A final weapon’s check and they started off keeping a wary eye out for humps in the snow that might hide a zombie.
They moved slowly across the mountain slopes, keeping in file, single file as a civilian would say, that would make it hard for any one that cut across their back trail to determine how many people might be in the group.
The Raiders had not attacked in the week time frame that Jared had thought they would. Everyone at the farm was on edge and some had begun to think that the raiders might have left the area. Then two days ago, John Grahams scouts had reported that the raiders were still in the area and that his scouts had located the general area of the raiders camp.
Jared had not been inclined to sit back and wait for an attack, so he had gotten a team together to scout the camp. They needed intel and this was the only real way to get it.
They moved from cover to cover, which slowed them down even more. But Jared was unconcerned with that. They didn’t know where the sniper might have gone or where exactly the raider base might be located. And unless the world had changed even more dramatically than they realized, snow wouldn’t provide any protection against bullets if either threat spotted them.
The forest was quite around them, except for the soft crunching of snow underfoot and the occasional sharp crack of a limb breaking off due to the weight of ice and snow that had accumulated on them. At one-point Jared crawled up between two large rocks and scanned the road with his binoculars. There was no sign that anyone had traveled down the Big Cove road in a while.
The problems would start once they located the Raid
er camp here in the Parklands. Jared still wasn’t sure how they would deal with the problem. But better not to borrow trouble till you have to he told himself.
✽ ✽ ✽
George “mule” Reed, Commander of the North Carolina 3rd militia was a thin man, not so long ago he had been a bit on the large side, his dark hair was still in the high and tight he preferred, though it looked a little ragged now. Appearances were important in a leader in his opinion but there was only so much that could be done these days.
He studied the map spread on the table, his men had barely made it up thru Black camp gap, to loop around to the backside of Big Cove Road. He had changed his plan on using the Blue ridge because he knew that the damned Indians had spotted one of his scouts, and the fact it would be too easy to create a landslide in front and behind his convoy and trap them.