After The End (30 page)

Liam stood and began to retreat into the
shrubbery.

“Wait, Liam.”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot to wait for you.” He
said as he smiled and put his hands in his pockets. “No rush.”

I shook my head in bewilderment.

Is this kid for
real?

“It’s not that; we have others waiting for
us. Some of them won’t be able to travel for a few more hours.
Could we just meet you again with the entire group at dusk?”

He hesitated before speaking.

“That shouldn’t be a problem; you could even
go with me and help if you wanted. But how many are there
total?”

“Total, we are twenty-five: twenty-one
adults, four children. We’d be happy to introduce you at the other
house and help you with whatever you’re doing until then.”

“Twenty-five! Wow, I can’t believe there are
that many of you still alive out here.”

Liam started rushing towards the blue
building, words pouring out of him faster than beer at a frat
party.

“I can’t wait to meet everybody. Are any of
the kids my age? Where have you all been this year; I thought
everyone got infected? I only started doing the signs three months
ago, I can’t believe that many others found them.”

We hurried behind the energized teen.

“Hold on, boy. Wait for us!” Troy yelled as
the group laughed and followed.

On reaching the porch, we found Sunny with
her spear blocking Liam from entering. The kid turned into a bunny
as she demanded to know who he was to come charging up towards her
with a crowbar.

“No, Sunny, it’s okay. He’s the guy we’re
here to meet.” I put my hand on the shaft of the spear, guiding her
to put it away. “This is Liam. Liam this is Sunny. Sorry, she’s on
guard duty, so you kinda freaked her out.”

I raised my eyebrows at her while our host
cleared his throat and offered a shaky hand.

“Pleasure to meet you ma’am.”

Sunny finally moved her weapon from the boy’s
face and made the greeting. She remained firmly planted in the
doorway.

“You too. Sorry, pregnancy hormones. So who’s
with you out here?”

“Oh, I already told Squirrel and the others;
it’s just me and my Gammy. Can I go in and meet everyone, please? I
haven’t seen any other survivors in person for a long time.
Squirrel said there were kids, too. It would be nice to have a
friend to play with again.” He rambled as he kept bobbing his head
to each side, trying to see inside.

“Um, sure kid. Go ahead.” She moved and waved
the eager teen inside before turning to me. “Is this child serious?
Just him and his grandmother and he’s running around out here
alone; do you believe him?”

“Actually, yeah. He’s either telling the
truth or the best actor I’ve ever seen.”

“Weird.”

She walked inside to wake her husband. Liam
stood in the living room talking rapidly to each person he saw.

“Does anyone here like games? I have board
games and cards at our place; it will be nice to play with more
than two people for a change.”

Jordy and Michael took to Liam instantly,
while the girls just asked him if he had more coloring books. The
general expression worn by the adults was one of pleasant
amazement. After thirty minutes of small talk – during which I
spoke with Daemon and Cal – I interrupted the animated
conversation.

“Alright everyone, settle down. Liam said
he’ll show us up to his place at sunset, but first I agreed to help
him with his errand.”

“Oh yeah. I’m supposed to be searching for
some more gardening supplies and checking the buildings for stuff.
You sure you don’t mind keeping me company?”

“I’ll be happy to help. We’ll throw together
a quick raiding party and head out.” I picked up an empty bag and
tossed on my quiver again. “It’s the least we can do.”

Throughout the raid, our crew encountered
nineteen Dead. Thankfully, twelve of them were caught in traps Liam
had set and posed no danger. The others were dealt with by the
gangly teen with a smash of his crowbar to the head. He simply
shook off the steel tool and used it to open the locked doors as
though he was just strolling through a supermarket; there was no
real fear in the way he moved. It appeared to me that he thought of
this an adventure, instead of a hazardous endeavor.

“That one was gooey, ick. Think that was my
old soccer coach. So, I noticed you guys seem really tense; remind
me to make you folks some tea when we get home tonight.”

As the day wore on, it felt more like a game
than our usual raids. Liam asked about our previous camp, and we
filled him in on what had happened in as PG-13 a way as
possible.

“They really burned your place down and shot
at you? Did they realize the little kids were in there?”

“They didn’t care. You and your Gammy have
been fortunate not to meet any people like that; it’s been a rough
year. The world’s changed. How did you two manage to stay so safe
all this time?”

“We always kept a greenhouse and a bunch of
emergency supplies on hand after Hurricane Charley. As soon as the
outbreak started, my Pops set up our traps all over the property
and showed me how to do the same. He made me stay with Gammy while
he went out to make more traps and always came back with more stuff
we might need.”

I looked at the writhing rotted zombies in
one of the traps; there was no way for them to get out without
getting even more stuck, probably destroyed. Liam looked at the
gray-skinned corpse in the sundress, before throwing a rock at its
head. His aim was good, and the creature slumped into a true death.
The boy smiled as he persisted with his answer.

“He used to be an engineer in the Army and he
built us a rain-catcher and a water purifier. He ran out and got
all the solar panels he could find and hooked them up so we
wouldn’t need a generator. My Pops left us with all the stuff we’d
need for at least a year and taught me everything for when our
stock ran low. He was awesome.”

He zoned out for a second and took a long
breath. The boy’s eyes softened.

“May I ask what happened to your father?”

“He died from his cancer. He was diagnosed
stage three about a month before the outbreak. One night he went to
bed and when I came in to bring him his breakfast…”

I saw the tears welling up and put my arm
around his shoulders.

“I understand. You don’t have to talk about
it if you don’t want to. Do you want to take a lunch break?”

He nodded and the five of us had lunch in a
church across from the park. Sitting on the wooden pews, we ate our
meal in silence. Once finished, we checked the office for first aid
kits and left the house of God. The sun was high overhead and we
circled back to the blue house.

Returning from the trip near evening, we
found the community sitting in the living room or waiting with the
cars. Our belongings were ready for transport when we walked in the
door.

“Eager to go guys?” Troy teased at the
sight.

With nervous grins, the group nodded or
chuckled.

Daemon glanced at the crossbowman before
rising to greet the stranger in the room.

“Hi, I’m Daemon and this is Cal. We were
asleep when you were here before.”

Cal joined his protégé and offered his hand
to our host.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Liam. We
appreciate you and your grandmother leading us here and allowing us
to stay here for the day.”

“Not a problem. We haven’t seen any other
living people in person for nearly a year; it will be nice to have
the company. It’s just not the same over the internet. Are you all
ready to go to the house? I’m not sure we have enough room, but we
can always add traps around this one and the one next door for
everyone to live here.”

I think I heard necks crack as we did double
takes and eyes widened.

“Did you say you talk to people online?” I
asked with air I’d forgotten to breath.

“Yeah, my Pops set us up with a satellite
receiver like the cable companies use so we could maintain service
if they lost power. Why?”

I sat on the thick cream carpet and let his
words sink in.

“Liam, who do you talk to online? Where are
the other survivors?”

He looked at me like I’d just asked him if
the sky was blue.

“The people outside of the quarantine zone.
No one inside seems to have a connection. Mostly, I video chat with
people in Canada and the UK, but sometimes I load a language
translator and talk to people in other places.”

My world went tilty and exploded for a
second.

We’re in a fucking
quarantine. The world abandoned us in the shithole. This can’t be
real.

“Squirrel, are you okay? You look like you
might puke. Why is everyone so quiet?” Liam said as he watched our
community absorb the news he’d just dropped on us like an atomic
bomb.

Cal was the first to reclaim the ability to
speak.

“Well, it makes sense. Epidemic like this,
you just contain and clean up after it dies out. Very prudent. Also
horribly inconvenient for those of us trapped inside the net, but
prudent nonetheless.”

He breathed deeply and looked concerned
before continuing.

“Liam, we were unaware that there were other
survivors in the world, so this has been a bit of a shock to us.
Could you please excuse us for a moment? Perhaps you’d like to
freshen up or help yourself to some food in the kitchen.”

“Oh. Wow, sorry guys; I really thought you
knew. Yeah, I’ll just go chill in the other room for five or ten
minutes and look through what we gathered today.”

The adolescent hustled out of the room with
his shoulders hunched and his face scarlet.

“Squirrel, we have a major problem. Did
anyone tell the lad about Daemon and myself?”

I shook the stupor off.

“No. I thought it might be best to ease him
and his grandmother into that after we’d had a proper chance to
meet. Why is that the problem? We just found out the rest of the
world locked us up in a zombie playground and they are out there
going about their regular days playing on the fucking computer and
not dodging cannibal rapists.”

Most of the assembly sat in silence. Randolph
stood.

“I think I’ll take the kids out of here.”

“Wait.” Cal blocked him. “We need everyone to
make sure not to say anything about vampires; including the
children. Daemon and I need all of you to help us hide our kind’s
existence.”

Ellen stood up and hugged Cal.

“We won’t tell you drink blood Uncle Cal.
Promise.”

Bobbi and Michael both agreed and went to
follow Randolph away from the grown up talk. Jordy nodded but
remained seated.

“Me too. I won’t say anything if you don’t
want.”

“Fine, no one will say anything about Undead
people. Ellen’s Mom and me are gonna get the kids in the other room
with Liam; someone fill us in on why later. C’mon Jordy.”

The boy remained seated.

“No, I’m old enough to stay. I’ve been
through adult stuff, it’s time I got treated like one; you aren’t
my parent.”

“He can stay.” I realized the voice was mine.
“The kid is almost Liam’s age and he’s right. He may not be old
enough for some of the responsibilities, but I think he understands
and does enough to sit in on meetings.”

“Your call. Alright you three, let’s go play
a game with the new boy.”

The five exited and we sat to hear out the
Roman.

“Floor is yours Cal. We won’t say anything,
but I’d like to know why it’s so damned important after what we
just learned.”

Assuming a soldier’s posture, he
explained.

“If they chat with the rest of the world,
anything we tell them could become known by the entire population
outside this area. If the remainder of the world is intact, then
the laws of our kind are as well. The most important of which is
preventing our existence from being known. It is essential to the
survival of our people that we remain a secret. Otherwise, things
can become strained between both of our species.”

“What does that matter if we’re here and the
other vamps are out there?” Chase snapped. His fist was clenched so
tightly, his knuckles were white and a vein protruded in his neck.
“If we’re stuck here, waiting to die – which would starve you two
out as well – why should we care what happens beyond the
boundary?”

“Because, if we comply, I may be able to
signal others of our kind to assist us in leaving this quarantine.
Also, I do have others I care about and I would not like to cause
them immense suffering or execution. The added potential for an
interspecies war is a factor as well, and should be of concern to
you.”

Chase leapt to his feet, fury jumping off of
him like bolts of electricity.

“I’ll keep the secret either way, but if you
think you can get us out of here, do it. I don’t want to sit here
waiting to die and praying my wife and baby make it through labor
when they could deliver in a hospital instead.

I shouldn’t have had to be stuck in this
cesspool of decay, watching people I cared about die and never
knowing what happened to my family. I shouldn’t have needed to hack
off my arm. Do what you have to, but now that I know about the
quarantine, I’m getting my wife and myself the hell out of
here.”

He waved his stump as frustration poured out
with his tears. Sunny hugged him and they cried together.

“We’ll get out. It’s okay, honey. It’ll be
okay.” She repeated as she rubbed his back in wide circles. Others
in the group broke down into tears as we all reflected on our
losses. The meaninglessness of it all was unbearable.

“Caelinus and I will do whatever we can. We
aren’t going anywhere without you guys. As soon as we find out
where the safe zone is, we can all work our way to it.”

I clasped Daemon’s hand.