Hell Happened (24 page)

Tony was finally able to get a word in and asked Keith to slow down and take it easy.

Jerry and Tony had already spoken about what information they would and wouldn’t share on the short wave.

“My name is Tony Marks and I’m a member of the Saunders clan of survivors. There are a couple dozen of us and we’re in Alabama. We have food and water, but little extra. Where is your compound located,
over.
”

“Pendleton said I can’t tell you for fear of you guys coming to take our stuff,” the young man said. Tony figured him to be around his age. “We’ve had a lot of that around here. We were attacked by brigands who killed three of our guys, but we’re getting better at defending ourselves, over.”

“We have the same issues you have. We call them zombies and vigilantes, over.”

“Zombies?
I’ll tell Smith that’s what you call them. He’ll like that. He hates them because they killed his friend. Pendleton Smith is in charge here and he keeps us alive. The brigands are worse though. They killed two of our scouting parties and attacked us here, but we held them off. I’m not supposed to tell you, but it probably won’t hurt, we’re on Fort Knox military base. We can defend ourselves good, over.”

“We’ve had a similar problem but we’re pretty well hidden. Did you suffer a hurricane three weeks ago,
over.
”

“We had a lot of rain a few weeks back, and probably tornadoes, but no hurricane. We didn’t get too much damage here on the base, but the towns around us are wasted. There’s fire in one of them, over.”

“Before I forget, Keith.
Write this down. Every night at 2100 hours I will monitor this frequency for you. Let’s keep in touch and maybe we can help each other, over.”

“That’s a great idea Tony. Every night I will try to be here. It might not be every night because we have to be on guard duty too, over!”

“Sounds like your signal is fading, Keith. It is great to hear you and now we know that more people are out there. Let’s keep in touch and see if we can reach others. I’ll let you know if I get anyone, over.”

“Will do, Tony.
It was great hearing from you.
Keith out.”

Tony turned the radio back to scanning and looked back at Jerry. He had a big smile on his face. “We’re not alone, Jerry. There are other places like here. Isn’t that great?”

Jerry smiled at the young man. “We’ve never been alone,” he said. “But now we know there are more people who aren’t alone too.” Jerry left Monica and Tony to the radio and went back to finish his supper. He finally had an idea what he could do with Cheryl.

~   
~
   
~

Randy had taken Cheryl’s meal to her and Tia and Kellie were sitting talking with Juan and his wife. Juan had worked as a corrections officer for 30 years before retiring. His wife had been a teacher of Spanish in the local school district and later an administrator. There was something special about those two and both Kellie and Tia enjoyed talking with them.

Josh was shutting down the grill and preserving the leftovers. His daughter, along with the others who had suffered from food poisoning, which had been complicated by their living conditions, were doing much better now that they were re-hydrating and getting some decent and safe food.

The others in the group had set up tents or were sleeping in the campers. Tia and Jerry both had spoken to each other earlier when the new people arrived. They agreed that new people coming would have to provide their own shelter. Both agreed they couldn’t disrupt their homes every time someone new came along.

Jerry was touched by the
deJesus
couple’s story, however. They had been sleeping in their minivan for the past two weeks, hadn’t showered and had just met up with the other two vehicles in the convoy in Mississippi the previous day. They were both underfed and, in an open moment of honesty, Juan told him they’d wanted to see to Gulf Coast one more time before they died, which was what they had planned on doing.

Jerry pulled Mr.
deJesus
aside and suggested he and his wife sleep in the cellar of the shelter until a motor home could be found for them. He also offered
them
showers and safety. There was something warm about the gentle old man and his kindly wife. Maybe it was that the Mexican immigrant somehow reminded him of Mike.

There were another four men, Danny, Sade, Rusty and Nick, and one woman, Katie, from the convoy, and three younger children without parents who had been rescued along the way; the oldest was a 16-year-old boy, Jamal, who was currently playing video games with Randy and Eddie, and twin girls, Tara and Sara who were John’s age.

The twins were playing with a rubber ball someone had found along with John and Hannah. Tia, like Jerry, had taken in the twin girls who had been riding in Josh’s camper. The girls were no problem for Tia as there was more than enough room in her motor home. “But that’s it,” Tia said with a smile. “No more kids for me.”

Kellie saw that Jerry was deep in thought. “Let’s go for a walk, Jerry,” she said to him and took him by the hand. Jerry wasn’t in a mood to walk, but he couldn’t say no to her. They walked past the campers, stopping to make sure those sitting around outside had gotten enough to eat. People were getting ready to call it a night. When they saw Jerry and Kellie, they were effuse in their gratefulness for allowing them a safe haven.

Jerry and Kellie smiled and walked on. Kellie was doing
every thing
she could to get Jerry away from everyone. When they were far enough away, so no one else could hear she asked him what was on his mind.

They walked for a little longer before Jerry was able to put his thoughts into words.

“Cheryl is a drag on us. She brings everyone down just being here. We can’t continue to ignore the problem. We’re going to have to do something with her one way or another.”

They walked further along the trail. The sun had set, but it was still light enough to see. “You have an idea how we can do this without killing her?”

“I think I do. What if we moved her? What if we gave her enough food and water to last a few days,
then
drove her somewhere blindfolded. We could drive for a few hours then find a place and drop her off near another camp, tell her which direction to go, and let her fend for herself,” Jerry said even as he was putting together the plan in his head. “I can’t see killing her, even though she probably was part of the reason Mike was murdered. It’s just not in me to do it.”

“Jerry,” Kellie said, leaning her head against his shoulder and holding his hand while they walked. “I don’t know what to do either, really. I see the way she is around Randy. She smiles at him and looks down and acts like she is subservient, bites her lip, and will do anything he tells her to do, but I think it is just that, an act.

“I haven’t talked to her, but maybe we should, before we make any decision. I might be wrong about her, but I have had a lot of experience with abuse and she isn’t acting like an abused woman.” Jerry had never asked Kellie about her husband. Reminiscing about past lives was a very sensitive subject. No one could go back and change what happened before the fall, and most people had secrets they felt were better left forgotten. Kellie talking about being abused shed a little more light on why she acted the way she did with him.

“Maybe you’re right,” he allowed. “Tomorrow, let’s you and me talk with her. If we are convinced she was just a victim, we’ll make arrangements to let her go on her way. There’s no way I want her here, even if she was coerced by those men. No matter what, she was walking freely and she could have run from them, but she didn’t.

“But if she was more than just a victim, then she was part of Mike’s murder and I’ll drive her ass to the middle of Texas and drop her off myself,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Sounds like you have a good plan,” Kellie said after thinking about it for a few paces. “You know, it’s funny, in a sad kind of way. Under the old judicial system, she might be able to convince a psychiatrist and a judge and a jury that she is innocent when everyone else knows she was guilty and she could walk away free to do it again.

“Tomorrow, we’ll be the psychiatrists, judges and jury and decide her fate. What uses to take months and years, we’ll do in a day. I wonder if we’re improving on the old system or making it worse.”

Jerry thought about it. “Right now, I don’t know if she is guilty or not, I guess. I’ve been told I’m not a deep thinker. All I know is
,
I need to do what is right and the only laws I really know are the ones that were written on a tablet of stone. Everything else people added afterward.”

“You’re a religious man,” Kellie said as a statement, but with enough inflection to make it sound like a question.

“No,” he said after some thought. “I believe in God and I believe we were all put here for some reason. I don’t know what that reason is and probably won’t be told.” There was a long pause while the two
walked and watched the stars grow brighter. “I try to live my life so when I die and have to face The One who made all of this, I don’t have to apologize.”

“I hope you’re right. I don’t know what to believe, but I do believe in you,” she admitted. “I was so afraid after the fall of the world...when everyone I knew died and I continued to live. I didn’t know why and no matter what questions I asked, no matter how much I prayed, I got no answer. When you found me and Molly, you found a walking dead woman.

“I was glad you found me and maybe that was the answer I was looking for. I don’t know. But I don’t feel like dying anymore. I thank God for you being there, being here, for me.”

Jerry had never thought of himself as a theologian. He went to church regularly and believed in God. When the minister spoke of the bible, Jerry was never really sure how much of it was true and how much made up by man. He was grateful God had spared both him and his son, and still prayed for the wellbeing of his daughter.

The final sermon given by his minister, on the weekend before the all churches were closed, when the end looked like it was coming for everyone and the church’s pews were nearly empty, he spoke of the end of times being upon the land. Jerry hadn’t understood most of what the minister was trying to say, but the death of nearly everyone on earth was surely the end of normal times. If Armageddon had happened, it didn’t happen the way the bible said it would.

“Tomorrow, we’ll talk with Cheryl and we’ll decide,” he said as they turned and headed back to the shelter. They heard a violin being played by someone. “I didn’t know anyone had a violin let alone played one.”

“But it sure is nice,” she agreed.

Kellie agreed. There was peace about and it felt good. That night she slept in the same bed with Jerry and did not cry, just allowed herself to be held close and comforted.

~     
~
     
~

Morning broke in silence. Jerry awoke and rolled out of bed.
Kellie’d
laid out clean clothes for him as she had begun to do every morning now. Usually she’d sleep in for another hour, but usually she slept in her own bed. This morning, however, she was in his bed. She sat up and swung her feet off the other side of the bed and started putting on her clean clothes.

“You’re up early,” he said, surprised she was getting up. “Planning on milking cows with me and Randy this morning?”

“I thought that might be something I’d like to learn someday, but this morning, I thought it might be a good idea to have a talk with Cheryl early. I think if we do it this morning, before everyone else gets up, we’ll probably not be interrupted.”

Pulling on a clean flannel shirt, Jerry considered what she suggested and agreed. Once everyone on the compound was awake, there’d be very little time for a private talk. Jerry recalled the time before the fall of the world that he and Randy might go most of the morning without speaking, not because they were mad at each other, it was just their way. Now it seemed everyone wanted to talk with Jerry and the time he used to have for himself could be measured in minutes rather than hours.

Jerry and Kellie met Randy outside the shelter. Jerry’s son looked tired. He’d probably been up late with Eddie and Jamal.

“Morning, dad, Kellie,” Randy said as they all began walking down the path to the barn. The weeds were taller than
Jerry’d
ever let them grow and once they crossed the crest of the hill between the
entrance to the shelter and the outbuildings that included the barn and garage, it was like looking at two different properties. The “front” of the farm was overgrown, debris was scattered about and was looking mostly abandoned, to the casual observer, while the back side, where everyone spent their off time was kept cleared and clean.

“Morning, Randy,” Kellie said to him, putting her hand on his shoulder as they walked to the barn. Randy had come to like Kellie a lot. She never forced herself on him, but he knew she was fond of his dad. Randy knew his dad had been alone for a long time and when Kellie moved into his dad’s room in the shelter he and Eddie made many sexual remarks behind their closed door.

But in all honesty to himself, Randy didn’t give his dad’s relationship with Kellie much thought. Kellie never tried to mother Randy, but would listen to him and give him sound advice without judging his opinions, something a lot of older adults were unable to do. She seemed to be a nice lady who his dad liked and that was good enough for Randy.