American Revenant (Book 2): Settlers and Sorrow (15 page)

Chapter
20

Dinner that evening was interesting, with eight
newcomers to the group.  New voices and faces at the evening meal breathed
renewed life to everyone’s conversation.

Alex and Evie were talking archery with several
people, including a few of the children.  Alex Jr. got over his shyness
quickly, walking around and chattering to everyone.

Everett, who was an avid reader, chatted about books
with Jimmy and Gordy. 

Arianna and Richard both sat well away from everyone,
and shut down any attempts at conversation with a curt word or silent look.

Dean and Rebecca spent the entire evening talking, sharing
their stories.

Garret and Louis hovered around Lynn and Anna, though
they were too shy around them to talk much.  Gordy new he wouldn’t have to
worry about it.  The boys were too timid, and his daughters were both very good
shots.  That is, if Cal and Dean didn’t get to them first.

“Listen up everyone,” Gordy said loudly, stopping the
many conversations.  “We have a lot of new people with us, and that means
living arrangements are going to have to change.

“There are seven cabins spread around the property,
and I think with our increased size we can start using those.  I also think we
should give the cabins to people with families, like Mike, Jimmy, or Alex. 

“There are four families, including myself and Jan. 
We can all sit down and work out who will bunk with whom in the remaining three
cabins over the next couple of days.

“We also have the Cambrey house, and I think it would
be a good idea to have a group of at least three people there at all times.  We
will have at least one large garden on that property, and the residents of that
house can work it, which means we always have eyes on the road leading in.

“There’s going to be plenty of work for everyone, just
between the gardens and the continuing construction on the wall.  For those of
you that are new here, we will try to work with your strengths, but everyone
will be expected to pull their weight.  The work is hard, and the days are
long, but with everyone working together we will build a safe home here, for
everybody.”

Everett spoke up from the back of the group, “You have
already witnessed that I do not walk well.  I am not sure what I can do to
help, but if you can find something for me, I am willing to do it.”

“Actually, Everett, I think I have the perfect job for
you, at least for the time being.  Can you operate a lawn tractor?”

“Yes, I certainly can.”

“Excellent.  We’ll get together tomorrow morning and I
can show you what the job is.”

Gordy answered a few more questions before sitting
back down with his wife.

Conversations began to die out as people went looking
for places to sleep for the night.

Mike and Jimmy, along with their wives had decided
long ago on which cabins they wanted when the time came to start using them,
and they went there, to leave more space for the newcomers in the main house.

Early the next morning Gordy, Jimmy and Cal showed
Everett the trenching tractor they were using to help build the wall.  He took
to it immediately, more than happy to be valuable.

Before Gordy and his men left he made sure to give
everyone jobs, whether it was trimming the trees to use as posts, or handling
the other riding lawn mower they were using to help break ground for the
gardens.  Everyone worked.

Rebecca asked to go along with the men returning to
New London for another day of scavenging.  Dean lobbied for her to go, but
Gordy vetoed it, asking that she stay and get acquainted with the Camp and the
other survivors.  She agreed, though she was not pleased with it.

As they were leaving the men were discussing Ruba’s,
the small supermarket that served New London. 

“That place is crawling with Zoms,” Rebecca told
them.  “I got close enough to see that there were a bunch inside, as well as
all the ones wandering around the parking lot.  No one can get in there, so the
place is still full of stuff.”

“Damn, the food in there would give us a break from
scavenging for a week or two,” Mike said. 

“Yeah, probably a months’ worth of food for the whole
group just sitting there,” Rick told them. 

“We can look at it, see if there’s a way to clear the
place out,” Gordy said. 

****

Rick and Mike were on top of a small brown and white
house on West Street in New London.  The house gave them a perfect vantage to
the small complex of buildings that sat in front of Ruba’s. 

“So, we have the gas station, the Subway Restaurant right
behind it, that Health Department building across the lot from there, and the
supermarket behind all of that.  And the Dollar Store on a separate lot, also
crawling with gut-suckers.  Damn.”

“Someone’s tried this before,” Mike said, “a lot of
dead bodies
not
walking around down there.”

“Whoever it was, they tried to ‘brute-force-it’.  We,
on the other hand are going to use finesse.”

“You really think we can pull this off?  That’s a lot
of gut-suckers to cut through.”

“It’s not a question of ‘can we’, Mike.  That’s a
lot
of food down there, at
least
a couple of months between all of those businesses.  We have to do this.”

They watched the distant buildings for a few more
minutes, pondering what tactics they could use to clear out the zombies and
empty the buildings of food and medicines.

Climbing back down they joined Dean and Gordy, who
were waiting inside the house.

They spent a little time explaining the situation, but
the four men agreed they couldn’t solve it standing here.  They would return to
the Camp and plan it out, getting suggestions from everyone.

Scavenging this portion of town was a waste of time,
as Rebecca had gotten much of it already. 

Climbing back into their vehicles, they drove out of
town.  Now they were on the hunt for the person or persons that owned the
cattle.

After nearly an hour of driving around on gravel side
roads, they found a large old white house, a thin man in overalls sitting on
the front porch with a rifle across his lap.

As they pulled up to the house the man on the porch
shifted his rifle, making sure that the men driving up saw it. 

Gordy got out of his truck and waved Mike up to join
him.  Everyone else he motioned to stay in the vehicles.  He did not want to
spook the man with four armed people suddenly coming at him.

“Ya’ll just stop right there!” the man yelled from the
porch just as Gordy and Mike made it to the edge of the yard, about thirty feet
from the house. 

“Sir, my name is Gordon Fletcher; we wanted to talk to
you about your cows.”

“I thought as much, but I ain’t interested in
talking.”

“Sir, we just want to know if it would be possible to
trade with you for meat or milk.”

            The
man seemed to think for a moment, “You want to trade, you say?”

            “Yes
sir, we would like to trade.”

            “Ya’ll
come on up here and have a seat.  Those other fellas in the car can come up too.”

            Everyone
joined the man on the porch, each shaking his hand as they came up.

            “Name’s
Daniel Brenger, good to meet you fellas.  Last time I seen anyone out here they
were waving guns around, demanding I give them some of my cows.  Hoped you
weren’t the same kind of folks.”

            “No
sir, but we’ve meet a few people like that.”

            “Well
then, you say your name was Gordon?”

            “Yes,
Gordon Fletcher, but everyone calls me Gordy.”

            “Well,
Gordy, what kind of trading you talking about?  What are you in the mind to
trade for?”

            “We
would love to have milk on a regular basis, as well as meat.  It all kind of
depends on what you would want in trade.”

            “I
can’t really say as I need much, but let’s talk awhile.”

            And
talk they did.  Gordy and the others sat on that porch for nearly three hours,
talking over the various options available to them.  Since his wife had died
over the winter, Daniel was willing to relocate to Saverton, if they could find
a way to get the cattle there.

            Gordy
said he would discuss it with everyone at the Camp, that together they should
be able to find a solution. 

            Before
they left, Gordy asked if Daniel would consider pasturing the animals in a
different place, one that couldn’t be seen from the road, to which Daniel
agreed, at least until Gordy returned.

Chapter 21

            “Hey
guys!” Jimmy said as everyone piled out of the vehicles.  “Hope you guys had a
great day, even though it looks like you didn’t get much,” he told them as he
looked in the back of pickup trucks.

            “Better
than you might think, Jimbo,” Dean said.

            “Sounds
promising, what’s the deal?”

            Gordy
responded, telling him, “I’ll talk to everyone about it in a while.  How’d
everything go around here today?”

            Jimmy
stood there looking at his friends, just smiling.

            “Oh
hell, what happened?” Mike asked.

            “It
has been a day of drama today, gentlemen, and you guys missed it.”  The men
stood beside the vehicles, in front of the main house listening to Jimmy.  “And
here comes your wife Gord-Man, I’ll let her tell you about it.”

            Everyone
turned to see Jan striding across the gravel lot towards them.  The scowl on
her face was obvious, even from a distance.

            “Gordon,
I don’t think I can deal with that woman!”

            “There
are several new women, which one are you talking about?”  Gordy asked the
question, though he felt certain of the answer.

            “That
Arianna!  You know me Gordon, you know that I can keep my temper, but that
woman has pushed every button I have, and that was before noon!  She’s lazy,
and rude, and hateful to nearly everyone, not just Becca.”

            “I
see you’ve already started calling her Becca,” Dean said.

            Jan
shot him a look that he had seen many times over the years, and knew that it
was a good idea to keep his mouth shut at times like this.

            Gordy’s
brow furrowed with concern, afraid that bringing so many people in so quickly
could harm the cohesiveness of the group.  He refused to let that happen.

            “Tell
me what happened.”

            “First
I caught her trying to get some of the kids to sneak her food, after I told her
that we ate at meal times only, at least until we have enough food to last.”

            Gordy
nodded, as this was something that everyone had agreed upon, and he had spoken
of it to every one of the new members.

            “I
tried to explain to her the reasons why we did it, and she starts popping off
at the mouth, so I just told her to stay out of the food until lunchtime and
walked off.

            “A
little while later I heard yelling, and found Arianna and Anna in the pavilion
having a shouting match, and I still don’t know what that was about.  When I
confronted the two of them Anna simply said ‘She’s nuts, Mom’ and walked away. 

            “Well,
Arianna is standing there crying about losing her home and her boyfriend and
everything she had.  I tried to be gentle, told her that we’ve all lost
things.  She screamed in my face ‘What the fuck do you know about loss, bitch!’
and I…” Jan paused looking at her husband, “I smacked her across the face.”

            “You
knocked her on her ass, and gave the whine-baby a shiner to boot, Jan.  I can’t
say I feel too bad for her either,” Jimmy said.

            “Oh
damn,” Mike and Rick said in unison.

            Gordy
stood looking at his wife, knowing that this was one of those moments that if
he were to put his arms around her it would only anger her more.  “Ok, well,
we’ll deal with it together, just like we’ve dealt with everything else.”

            Jan
nodded at her husband, keeping silent for fear of saying something horrible
about Arianna.  Jan wasn’t a mean-spirited person, but she, like anyone, could
only take so much.

            “Is
that it?  Jimmy let on that the day was filled with drama.”

            “Richard
spent the day starting at me, Lynn and Evie while we were working with the kids
in the ball diamond,” Tamara said, coming up behind the group.  “I don’t know
which of us he was eyeballing, but it was damn creepy.”

            “He’s
close to the same age as Lynn, so that would be my guess,” Rick told them.

            “I
don’t know,” Tam responded, “I just know it was creepy.”

            “He
refused to help anyone with the jobs that needed done?  Hell, he could have
just helped bring up water and boil it, and I would’ve been happy.”

            “Cal
and I tried to get him to help us on the wall, Gordo,” Jimmy told them, “but he
would pull away like we were trying to infect him with the sickness.”

            “Tam
and Evie had a bit of a fight,” Jan told the group.

            “It
wasn’t a fight; we had a disagreement, loudly.”

            “About
what?” Gordy asked her.

            “We
both have degrees in education, and we both have ideas about how to teach the
kids.  It was nothing major, and we both apologized after, it’s all good,
Gordy, I promise.”

            “Ok,
then, we’ll leave it at that.  Anything else?”

            “No,
not really, Garret and Louis both helped on wall and garden stuff, though you
can tell those boys aren’t used to hard work,” Jimmy told him.

            “Everett
was doing great until after lunch, his hip was hurting him pretty badly, so I
looked him over and gave him some aspirin to help with the pain and the
swelling.  He really should have had that hip replaced years ago.”

            “Any
trouble from Rebecca,” Gordy asked.

            “Well,
I can say that girl certainly has a mouth on her, but no, no trouble.  She
helped out anywhere it was needed, any time anyone asked, and a few times when
she wasn’t asked.”

            “Really
doesn’t surprise me, she’s something else, that one,” Rick said.

            “She
certainly is.”

            Everyone
turned to look at Dean, noticing the big smile on his face, and started
laughing.

            “Oh
shut up.”  But he could feel the deep blush rising in his cheeks, as well as a
tightness in his scar tissue.

            “Hey
everyone, how’s it going?” Rebecca asked, walking up to the knot of people
standing by the vehicles.  “Hey there, Scarface, who lit you up?  You’re
turning four shades of red.”

            The
entire group began to laugh as they walked away.

****

            Dinner
went by quickly that evening, with Gordy and the others sharing what they had
seen at the supermarket, as well as what Daniel Brenger had told them.

            The
thought of fresh milk and meat brought a round of cheers from everyone, except
for Arianna and Richard, who had once again separated themselves from the
group, each finding a separate corner to hide in.

            Once
the meal was finished and everything cleared away, Gordy took time to discuss
life in the Camp.  He stressed that everyone worked; everyone did their part to
help make this place safe.  He spoke at length on common courtesy, and how
everyone understood how difficult life was now, how sometimes just getting
along with others was often the hardest part of living together in a group.

            After
his speech, Gordy began discussing options on clearing the walking dead from
around the shops in New London. 

            “It
will take a lot of hands to make it work.  Once we clear it of zombies we’ll
have to take everything we need right then, nothing can be left behind.  I
don’t want to take the chance that when we go back it’s all gone.

            “Which
brings us to the problem of transporting so much stuff at once.  We have a few
vehicles, but not nearly enough to move everything.  So if any of you have
ideas on that let us know.”

            “What
about horse trailers?”

            Gordy
looked at Alex, sitting with his wife and son.  “Horse trailers?”

            “The
trucks we have can pull ‘em, but it might be slow going when they’re all loaded
down.  The Richmond horse farm right down the road should have at least a
couple sitting there.”

            “I
think there are,” said Jimmy, “I’m pretty sure we saw some when we cleared that
place.”

            “We
could also use those to move the cattle,” Alex told the group.

            “Ok,
so that gets quite a bit of stuff, but I don’t think a couple of horse trailers
will be enough.  Everyone think on it tonight, see if we can come up with
something feasible.  For now, Rick and Mike will explain what they see as the
best plan for clearing out all the gut-suckers…”

            “Oh
come on, Gordy, we just ate,” Tam said from the back of the room, eliciting
laughter from everyone.

            Gordy
laughed with them and sat down so that Mike and Rick would have everyone’s
attention.

            For
the next hour they went over every point regarding ‘Operation Supermarket
Assault’, which Mike thought sounded like a bad television game show.

            They
spent time explaining each move, how targets would be chosen and how people
would slowly close in on each objective.

            Rick
drew out a rough sketch of the complex of buildings, passing it around to
everyone.  He used it as a visual aid to help everyone understand how the
operation would work.

            “We
will go over all of this again with everyone who goes along for the operation,
so don’t worry about memorizing right now,” Mike told the group, “we just want
everyone to be aware of the plans so you can share any thoughts on it.”

            “This
is for you newcomers to our family, are any of you familiar with firearms?”

            The
only person to raise their hand was Everett.

            “Thanks
Everett, for those of you that are not, get with me tomorrow morning and I’ll
give you a crash course in firearm use and safety.  Everyone going out there
should have at least a basic knowledge of guns, and Rick and I can help you
with that.”

            “Are
we required to learn how to shoot a gun?  I don’t like guns and I damn sure
don’t want to shoot one.”  These were the first words Arianna had spoken all
evening.

            “No
one is going to force you to shoot a gun, but I think that in today’s world not
having at least the basic skills is foolish,” Rick told her.

            Arianna
mumbled something from her corner.

            “I’m
sorry, I didn’t hear that, Arianna,” Rick said.

            “She
said ‘Fuck you and your guns’, Rick.”  Rebecca glared into Arianna’s corner,
looking as if she were trying to burn holes through her.

            Jimmy
stood up, mouth open, ready to tell off the ungrateful woman when Tam put her
hand on his arm, stopping him before he could say anything.  Tam shook her head
at him when he looked down at her hand, “Don’t babe, it’s not worth the
argument,” she whispered to him.

            The
evening ended quickly after that, with people leaving the main house quietly. 
Everyone was afraid to set off the powder-keg that the new-comers had brought
with them.