Dead: Winter (26 page)

As she caught up with the group, Mary immediately clutched the girl’s arm. “You did that so easily,” she gasped.

“What do you mean?” Heather asked. “Haven’t you put down a few of them yourself?”

“Oh no, my dad says that he doesn’t want me to risk getting hurt. He takes care of any of those nasty things we run into.”

“So you’ve never killed even one?”

“Oh no,” Mary said emphatically.

“Great,” Heather said under her breath.

The rest of the walk was in silence for the most part. As the snow only seemed to fall harder, it became more tedious and ti
r
ing. On a few occasions, Mary began to fall behind and Paul—oblivious to Kevin and Heather’s raised eyebrows and questio
n
ing looks—would scoop her up and carry her on his back for a ways.

Finally, just as the shadows were joining and the darkness was settling on the landscape, the ju
m
ble of vehicles that acted as the barricade for the main entrance to the sprawling country club seemed to thrust itself up out of the gloom. They all climbed over; Mary required a great deal of help.

The walk up the winding road seemed to take forever. Kevin had stopped being able to feel his hands or his feet quite some time ago. He was thankful that, as useless as she appeared, at least Mary didn’t complain.

They reached the front door and were met immediately by Aleah and Matt. Aleah’s eyes were red and puffy, visible even in the poor light cast by the fire.

“What is it?” Kevin felt his stomach twist. He knew what she was going to say before the words burned their way into his ears.

“Autumn died.”

10

Painful
F
arewells

and
T
ough
C
hoices

“…and as we
say farewell to our dear friend Teresa, let’s try to dwell on how wonderful she was, how deeply she cared for each and every one of us. Let’s remember the young lady who was a fighter and protector,” I said.

Who was I kidding? Every single one of us was shredded on the inside. Hell, Sunshine had Jamie so drugged up that he was just leaning on Billy staring off into the blinding white that blanketed everything. Which reminded me; one thing we definitely needed if we were able to get out and make a run was sunglasses.

“If anybody has anything they would like to say, please step forward,” I announced.

One by one, everybody came and stood beside the pyre to speak, even the two new girls, Nickie and Christina. I had so desperately wanted to have this all taken care of before Jamie came to, but that had not happened. The worst part was when Billy and Jon carried her out of the cabin. They’d had to walk past the poor guy who was already near hysterics even in his stupor. I’d never heard anybody so grief-stricken in my life.

At last, it was time to light the torches. I glanced at Jamie, but Billy shook his head. Jamie was too far gone. Jon and I set the pile ablaze and stepped back. Melissa gave me a slight nod and guided Thalia and Emily back up to the cabin along with the two children from the newcomers.

And that was another thing. They still hadn’t returned. Jake—who’d only been back an hour after deciding that the abandoned compound was a no go—and Jesus were going to suit up and search for them now that the funeral was over. However, I’d given specific orders to Jon that I didn’t want them out more than twenty-four hours. I didn’t care what they were trained to endure, my people were not going to die searching for folks we barely knew and had just met.

As I watched the fire grow and the smoke rise into the sky, I took one more moment to remember
my
Teresa, not the one I’d sat beside in that bed and plunged a knife into the eye socket. I felt a huge hole in my soul where she belonged. Try as I might, I could not reconcile her death. It had no known cause, and unless this zombie infection had somehow become airborne, it was inexplicable.

I considered that as the possibility and it gave me chills. That would, in essence, nullify everything that we had done to survive. All of this would be meaningless. I remember back just a handful of months ago, before this unthinkable situation we now found ourselves stuck in, when the news was ripe with stories about the next big illness. They all got catchy names and graphics on the cable news channels. Doctors would make the circuit like a Hollywood star promoting his or her newest film and tell us about all the ways we needed to change in order to prevent the spread of the latest plague. Funny how those things would just magically disappear.

“Steve?” It was Christina. I suddenly realized that I hadn’t even had the chance to speak to her yet since she’d arrived.

“What’s up?” I turned my back to the blaze and faced her.

“That really big guy, DeAngelo I think, he says he needs you up at the house.”

“I’ll be right there.”

She turned to go, and then stopped. “Hey, I just wanted to say thank you. You and the others have been really great, and that is hard to find anymore it seems.”

“I gotta believe we aren’t the only ones out there who are still acting decent. I know there are a lot of bastards taking advantage of the situation…but I think it has to balance out,” I replied.

“Anyways…just wanted to say I appreciate it is all.” She turned and headed back up to the cabin.

With a sigh I followed. I had no idea what DeAngelo wanted, but lately, anytime I’d been summoned, it hadn’t been good. As I reached the stairs, I heard a fairly heated argument taking place. I didn’t know who was pissed at whom, but I did know that it was too damn early for cabin fever to be setting in. This stuff had to stop. I knew we’d had a lot of policy crap being batted about when it came to how this place was being run, but as far as I was concerned, this was still
my
group. Until we made some sort of official decree, all of the folks here were brought in with my consent. It was time that I started acting like a leader again.

As I climbed the stairs, I swore I felt Teresa right there with me. It wasn’t the first time that I’d relied on her strength, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last.

“…they made me promise!” DeAngelo insisted. He was standing nose-to-nose with Jon.

Of all the people I expected to see facing off with one another, this was the least likely pairing that I could imagine. Jon was livid, his face beet red. DeAngelo was standing over him with clenched fists.

“What in the hell is going on?” I asked. I kept my voice calm, hoping it might inspire a more relaxed attitude.

“Those newbies went off into the woods to die and left their kids with us,” Jon yelled.

“I don’t get it…a few of them were infected. They took them out to do whatever it is they were gonna do—” I started.

“Nope,” Jon cut me off. “They ain’t comin’ back. And to top it off, DeAngelo knew.”

“They asked me to keep it to myself so they could die in peace,” the big man explained. “I guess they weren’t entirely truthful about who was bit for one. And the women whose husbands were bit felt it was their duty to be with their husbands in the end. They can’t commit suicide because of their beliefs and the women can’t kill the men. It is complicated and I don’t understand it entirely. The thing is, they were afraid that you might stop them. They asked if Melinda and I would take their children.”

“So let me see if I am getting this straight?” I casually stepped between the two men, forcing them apart. “Those people left their two children here and wandered out into the woods to basically wait for the ones infected to turn. More of them were infected than we were led to believe, and the ones who aren’t infected, the women, can’t kill the men?”

“Pretty much,” DeAngelo agreed.

“But what about the eyes?” I asked. “We saw the eyes of the infected members of their party.”

“You saw when they first arrived,” DeAngelo reminded me. “When all that happened with Teresa, you folks were really busy. Sahiba came to me with Enuma and another of the men. The tracers were just starting to show.”

“Jon, send your two men out now.” I faced the angry Marine. “Tell them to follow the tracks if they can. Shoot anything that moves.”

A chorus of “What!” erupted from around the room. I did a slow circle as I spoke to ensure I made as much eye contact as possible. “These people made a choice. We may not understand the choice, but we will respect it. We can’t risk bringing them back in, they’ve already been dishonest and I will not endanger any of ours for any of theirs. The reason I am sending Jake and Jesus out is because I want to make sure they don’t come stumbling back into camp as one of those things. Not only do I not want anybody hurt, but I don’t want those kids to see their friends and family as one of the monsters that haunt their dreams.”

I saw mixture of understanding and doubt as I looked around the room. Quite frankly, I didn’t care. I was exhausted.

Turning to DeAngelo, I stared up into the big man’s unapologetic face. “I understand your reason for doing what you did, but you still should have pulled me aside and given me the run down. We have a responsibility to this place. You joined us, even if it is only for the winter, so you are part of
us
. We have no way of knowing how far those folks got away from here before one of them turned. If they made it back here and anybody got hurt, it would be entirely on you. Not to mention, you knowingly let infected people walk around our home. What if one of them would’ve turned inside? You put us all at risk.”

I saw a few things flash in the eyes of DeAngelo Cribbs. For just a second, I knew how opposing players must have felt looking across at this man on Sunday. He was much scarier than any zombie.

“Sorry, Steve,” he finally mumbled and nodded his head. Then he turned to Jon. “And I apologize to you, Jon. I guess I didn’t think it through.”

Jon nodded and the two men shook hands. However, I wasn’t finished. I stepped over to the table and rapped on it with a metal cup to get everybody’s attention focused back on me.

“The past few days, there has been a lot going on. It was bound to happen as our group grew and we became comfortable with each other. Some of you have stopped thinking about the zombies as a threat. That is dangerous not only to yourself, but to all of us. We have all been doing our own thing. The reality is, we need to set some rules in place. I realize that isn’t a very popular idea, but it is a fact.

“We can’t keep going on the way we are. Winter is here and it is going to be a lot tougher than I think we may realize. I am proposing that we elect what basically amounts to a mayor and a person to be a vice-mayor or whatever the heck they’d call it.” As I looked around the room, I wasn’t seeing any heads nodding.

“We have to have some semblance of order or we will not make it through the winter,” Doctor Zahn stepped forward and addressed the room. “As unpopular as that idea may seem, we have to have somebody making the decisions. We need to have somebody who will do what is best for the group and be willing to put the group ahead of themselves.”

“Excuse me,” Nickie spoke up from where she sat next to the fire beside Christina. “I guess I never thought to ask, but isn’t Steve the leader here?”

“Actually,” Dr. Zahn replied, “he sorta has been. The problem resides in the fact that we never really made it official. So, any time something came along that didn’t suit one of us, me included, we just tended to ignore him.”

“And Steve is good at seeing things,” Melissa stepped up beside the doctor, “and saying things that people may not want to hear. The thing is, if you take some time to think about it, you may discover that, as much as you hate what he said…he might have some points worth considering.”

I made eye contact with Melissa and saw that there was a hint of pain. I couldn’t begin to guess what was going on in her mind. I knew well enough that she still didn’t accept my solution. I honestly believe that if she was faced with the choice, she would die with our child in her arms. She hadn’t undergone any change of heart, but it wasn’t an issue between us any longer and I could accept that.

“So the best way that I can think of to go at this is to open it up for nominations,” I said.

“Umm,” again Nickie spoke, “this might seem silly, but I guess I want to make certain just in case there is more here that I don’t understand, but I want to nominate Steve.”

“I nominate Jon.” Jesus stepped forward.

“No,” Jon said firmly.

“But you are a natural leader,” Jesus protested.

“My expertise is in military matters, strategy, defense…but I have no talent for managing people,” Jon explained.

“How can you say that?” Jake joined into the conversation.

“Look at how the whole ordeal with DeAngelo just went down,” Jon pointed out. “Instead of dealing with the problem, I escalated it.”

“But the guy put our entire compound in danger,” Jesus argued. “Mistakes have consequences.”

“And we, as military men, hold ourselves to a different standard than a civilian. Some of our training involved stripping some of the emotion away. This camp needs human emotions and compassion that none of the three of us are all that adept at calling upon. I would include Dr. Zahn in our group, but I do not believe that she would be any more interested in the position of mayor, or whatever the blazes we are gonna call it, than I am. Sorry if I’m speaking out of place, Doc.”

“No, Jon,” Dr. Zahn said with a sarcastic laugh, “if nominated, I will not run, and if elected I will not serve.”

“So who else?” I asked. “This isn’t much of an election if I am the only candidate.”

“I think that says all we need to know,” Fiona said. “Steve, the fact is, you have always been our leader. You have kept us in balance and always taken the job seriously. I don’t think any of us want to do what we see you doing. You’ve been our leader and it is time that we all step forward and give you the job in an official manner. Unless anybody has anything else to add, I want to second Steve’s nomination and call for a vote.”