Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (12 page)

Swans
Island- 2032

“That was a lovely wedding, wasn’t it, Owen?” Hannah said as she tidied up the cabin after the evening festivities.

“Indeed it was, dear.” Owen nodded in amusement at his wife’s pleasure. She was always so happy when her children were moving into the next stage of their lives.

“…say, Owen?”

“Yes, my darling?”

“Do you remember the funeral we had for Judith Marie?”

The pain came so suddenly that even Owen’s strong body could not handle it. He jumped in shock at the mention of his daughter’s name. The fact that his wife, who could not handle the thought of the memory, was bringing it up herself was beyond him. What could she mean by it? Most of the time, the two liked to pretend that she was simply off somewhere, playing a game. Not at home, but would one day come back.

Finally, Owen found it in him to answer her.

“…Of course I do, Hannah. I buried my first born that day.”

“Do you think she would have been proud of how this island has grown since she was buried here? Do you think she would have been happy to have her sister’s wedding over her burial ground?”

“I absolutely do, Hannah. I absolutely do.”

And as the couple tucked the baby in for the night and fell asleep, a shadow was cast over the quiet island. Questions unanswered, but a kind of serenity from the secrecy, remained.

But Owen could not help but think to himself about a secret far more terrible than that which he had told his son. One secret that his wife would never permit him speak of again. And the question that hung more over the night than anything else remained fresh in his mind.

What if they all knew the truth?

Swans Island- 2018

Everyone was asleep. Only Hannah and Owen remained awake, cleaning up the beach after the funeral had ended. The colonists had made a large sleeping area around a fire on the far side of the beach.

“Walk with me, Hannah.” Owen took his wife’s hand and led her down the beach, away from the others.

“We need to talk about something.”

“What?” Hannah looked incredibly worried. She was scared that this was the moment when Owen would tell her he was infected and leaving her. Or this would be the moment that he would tell her it was time for him to find someone else. Someone who didn’t make him so upset. Someone with whom he didn’t share such a secretive and terrible past.

“Owen?” She would not let that happen without a fight.

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“…I love you too, Hannah.” Owen looked confused. How could his wife not know that he loved her? She seemed afraid.

“What’s wrong, Hannah?”

“…are you going to leave me, Owen?”

Owen broke up into laughter. Perhaps an evil laughter, since Hannah didn’t know what the giggles meant.

“Where am I going to go, Hannah? Another island?”

But Hannah looked serious, and her face did not soften at his joke.

“…Hannah?” She was crying, he could see now. There were tears in her eyes. Before her daughter had died, she had never been much of a crier. It shocked him that she would cry at anything related to him. Didn’t she know?

“Hannah, don’t you know how much I need you?”

She looked at him with a face that said she had no idea.

“Hannah, we’ve been through so much together. How can you think…how could you even imagine that I would ever leave you?”

“That’s why I was in the back of the line that night, instead of up with you, Owen.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I tried to walk with you, but you didn’t want it. I always liked it better when the kids could be watched by more than one person. So I liked having people behind me. But you wanted me in the back…so the kids and I were back there and…and…and I lost him, Owen. I lost him and then…then we lost her…”

“Hannah…”

“It’s all my fault.”

“It’s not your fault…”

“I should have known better than to walk behind everyone. I had our two children with me. And I wasn’t looking out for them. I was being a coward and avoiding you.”

“Hannah, please, listen to me. There was nothing you could have done.”

“Judith Marie is dead, Owen. She’s dead and she’s never coming back.”

“There isn’t anything you could have done to stop that, Hannah.”

“Isn’t that what you wanted to do? Bring me out here to tell me what a terrible mother I am? How I didn’t even speak at my own daughter’s funeral? You want to know why I didn’t?”

“…why didn’t you, Hannah?”

“Because I thought you’d be angry with me.”

“Hannah, why would I have been angry with you for speaking at our daughter’s funeral?”

“I never know what you want from me anymore, Owen. We’re falling apart, can’t you see? After the zombie attack…after that attack we stopped being okay. You hurt me, Owen. And you walked away and never looked back. I’m not going to pretend that that didn’t happen. You hurt me.”

“Hannah…”

“And you know what? I’m done feeling like that’s my fault. Because it isn’t. Damn it, Owen, a year ago we were still teenagers. I’m tired of being an adult so early. I didn’t get enough time. We didn’t get enough time. Do you remember how we used to go on dates? How we used to sneak into bars and clubs? How we used to be normal? And now I’m some mother and wife to a leader. There’s nothing more to us than that. There will never be anything more to us than that.”

“…Hannah, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I didn’t go back. I just…”

“You didn’t care.”

“I didn’t think…Hannah, I can’t lose you. Please don’t do this to me.”

“…what did you want, Owen? Why are we out here?”

Owen sighed and looked into his wife’s eyes.

“I know you don’t like to talk about this, Hannah. But the last time we brought it up…well, it didn’t end so well.”

“I don’t want to talk about the Zero-Hour, Owen.”

“We have to, damn it. We have to talk about it. We have to talk about what happened, because we can’t keep pretending it didn’t happen. Are we going to tell them or not?”

“Tell who?”

“Hannah, are we going to tell the rest of the Tribe that we’re the ones who spread the virus or not?”

Hannah was silent for a very long time, and Owen let her be quiet. He didn’t dare push the matter when she was so fragile. She had been thinking the same thing, and he could tell. They had so many secrets to keep from their companions that they probably did them more harm than good.

“…Owen. Do you understand what you’re asking me?”

“I want to know what you think, Hannah. I want to know if you think we ought to tell them. After today…I’m worried that they’ll figure it out if we don’t tell them ourselves. And…and part of me feels like they deserve to know anyway, you know?”

“Owen, we’re finally in a good place here. This island…we’re finally safe…”

“I don’t want the beginning of my ancestry to start with lies. What can they do to us if they know? What’s the worst they can do?”

“Throw us out and we won’t have an ancestry at all. No, Owen, we can’t tell them. Not now and not ever.”

“...how are we going to live with that?”

“The same way we live with Judith Marie’s death and Willa’s death. By remembering that we didn’t create the virus, Owen. We didn’t know what we were doing. We were stupid teenagers. We couldn’t have known.”

“But, we shouldn’t have…”

“It wasn’t our fault, Owen. It was the man who started the damn thing. The man who thought he could help the human race, but destroyed it instead. That wasn’t us, Owen. That was someone else. And I’m done with you taking the blame for it. You need to let it go.”

“…you’re right. Of course you’re right.”

Owen kissed his wife and pulled her close to him.

But the thought didn’t quite leave his mind. If anyone in the colony was to find out what they had done…that none of this would have happened if it weren’t for his stupidity…they would never understand. No one could ever understand.

The night fell. Hannah fell asleep with the others. But, as he had so many times before in his life, Owen sat awake thinking about the secrets he kept from so many people who claimed to care about him.

But would they care about him if they knew?

Owen wasn’t so sure.

To be continued…

“Two scoops of Rocky Road please.”

“I
said
, two scoops of Rocky Road please.”

What?

James snapped back to reality, an impatient child standing across the counter from him. The small boy looked back at him in anger and frustration, just a kid trying to escape the heat of the summer day.

But something didn’t feel right about this summer day. No, something didn’t feel right about it at all.

At twelve years old, there wasn’t much James could do about his premonition. He had never had one before, and he didn’t know how to react. So he didn’t. He gave the kid a small, apologetic smile, took his cold ice cream scoop and charged him a whopping $4.00 for a couple scoops of Rocky Road.

Having your Dad be the owner of the most expensive ice cream store in town had its benefits. James was a hard worker, and he learned from a young age how to please other people and work with customers, especially the angry ones. It had gotten to a point where his father wasn’t afraid to leave him alone in the shop. James was proud of that. It made him feel grown-up.

Not to mention the free ice cream.

The store was oddly empty for noon on a Saturday. The boy with the Rocky Road had been James’ only customer in hours. That’s why he had been spaced out, thinking about everything
but
work. School going back in the fall, what he’d like to do with the money he earned this week, if Jessica Bower would ever talk to him, and then, finally, why something wasn’t right with the day outside.

The streets outside the glass windows were bare now, the young boy long gone with his ice cream. James shrugged it off, scooped himself out some chocolate, and went back to the freezer room with it, figuring he would take inventory for his dad while he wasn’t busy.

Inventory was easy enough, even for a twelve year old. All James had to do was count the number of gallons they had of each ice cream flavor, and then write the magic number down on a clipboard that they kept hanging on the wall. His father didn’t even check his work anymore, though James wouldn’t dream of lying to him about it.

James was just a dorky kid with ugly glasses, greasy hair that he kept pulled back in a ponytail, and a small and squeaky voice. No one liked him, except maybe his teachers. He was a very smart boy, and always excelled in school. He would be entering middle school soon…that both excited him and terrified him. The courses would be easy, but getting to know new people? That wouldn’t be so easy at all…not for the socially awkward ditz that James disappointingly found himself to be.

Creak.

Intuitive as he had learned to be (working in any shop where there might be angry customers teaches that to you), James knew that sound meant someone was waiting to be helped. He sighed, put the clipboard back on the wall, smoothed his apron, and left the freezer. But, when he got to the counter, there was no one there.

Someone probably just didn’t want ice cream anymore.

James told himself this, but he didn’t really believe it. No one came in an ice cream store with no intention of buying ice cream. Especially not on a hot Saturday afternoon in the scorching sunlight. Something was off here, but he wouldn’t admit it to himself. His father wouldn’t be back until five o’clock this evening, and he didn’t need to be shivering and shaking when he returned.

But he would be alone until then, assuming no one else came in for ice cream.

A hand clapped over his mouth from behind him. James tried to scream and kick, but one very strong arm wrapped around his waist and picked up his small body like a Barbie doll.

Kicking and wreathing, James tried to see his attacker, but he couldn’t get a good look at him from his angle. The dark figure made ‘shh’ sounds and he took James back to the freezer, where he dropped him onto the floor before shutting the door.

“Don’t scream, James.”

It was his father.

James was crying now, terrified. Why had his father done that? Why couldn’t he have just
told
him to come back here? What was going on?

“Why did you do that?” James whined as he felt a warmness on his crotch and legs that he hadn’t had five minutes ago. When he realized what had happened, James began to sob.

“You shut up!”
His father said fiercely, clapping a hand back over his son’s mouth. “If you don’t stop crying right this minute, you’re going to get us both killed.”

That shut James right up.

“…what?”

“You heard me.”

“Dad, what’s going on? Why are we in the freezer? Dad, I’m cold.”

James’ father took off his sweatshirt and handed it to his son, who wrapped it around him tightly.

“Now listen to me, son. There’s something very bad going on outside right now, do you understand me? I’m going to go out there and try to find your mother…”

“Daddy, no!”

“I have to, son.”

“Don’t leave me alone in here, Daddy, let me go too.”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, James. Now stay here.” His father reached down and kissed him on the forehead. “With any luck, I’ll be back in ten minutes. You keep this door locked from the inside, you understand? Don’t let anyone in unless it’s me.”

“…how do I know it’s you?”

“Blackberry.”

It was James’ favorite ice cream flavor. His father bought it for him special.

James nodded, the tears flowing down his face, but he kept himself quiet. His father opened the door and left him. James stood and locked it behind him.

His father never did come back.