Barren Fields (25 page)

“Enough with the dramatic pauses. Could you just tell me, please?”

“They are starving to death,” he says with a shrug implying simplicity. “If you remember, the infected were finally starting to starve to death. That is why everyone felt it was safe to start travelling. But the Toxoplasmosis gondii parasite is a living creature and requires a living host. The late stage of starvation the infected are in is essentially causing the body to eat itself. The breakdown of the body systems caused a mutation, or rather a change, in how the parasite manipulates its host. It needed the infected host to become faster and more dexterous in order to catch diminishing prey.

“The runners are attacking walkers to increase their numbers just as they did during the initial outbreak. But walkers would most likely turn into runners eventually anyway, once their bodies reach a critical starvation point. The runners attacking the walkers is just speeding up the process.

“They are swarming together in an effort to cover a greater area and find more food. They are no longer interested in infecting the remaining human population. They will do to us what they did to poor Mr. Bradley. They will consume us entirely if we are caught.”

“So making people immune is irrelevant at this point?” I ask.

“Oh no, immunity will still help people survive if they are attacked and can get away. And it will be even more important two or three months from now.”

“What happens then?”

“By then the infected should all be dead.” He puts his hand up to stop me. “Yes, I know what you want to ask, why seek immunity if the infected are dead? The infected will be dead but not the parasite. The dead bodies of the infected are already in our lakes, rivers, and streams. They are rotting around the world and animals are consuming their corpses, allowing the parasite to continue existing. My engineered parasite could possibly never go away, but as long as the remaining human population is inoculated with the unaltered parasite, there will be no more outbreaks of this zombie disease.”

Erde finishes his speech and everyone’s expressions fall into concerned frowns, the exact opposite of the cheerful smiles I expected from this news.

“Let me guess, none of this matters because a giant meteor is about to strike the Earth and kill us all,” I offer trying to lighten the mood.

No one is amused.

“The infected are swarming now,” Erde continues. “They are desperate and virtually unstoppable, like locusts sweeping through a field. We are already unable to leave the ranch and go into the cities for supplies because they might follow us back when we return.”

“So we wait them out. We have wells for water and enough food to last for another five months at least without rationing anything, more than enough time for them to starve.”

“They will find us before they all die. Some already have,” he says.

“We have been getting runners at the fences throughout the day,” Simone tells me. “One or two at a time, but they are coming. And those are just the loners, eventually we could get hit with a swarm. There are runners swarming in Medford as well, which means we could see a larger group of them hit us than during our winter attack. And this time it won’t be an army of frozen, barely moving people that are easy targets.”

“How do we know they are swarming in Medford?”

“Greg called us,” Arthur offers. “They got set up south of Medford and let us know what they were seeing in the city.”

“Does he have enough food for him Lilly and Jessica to make it until the infected starve?”

He shakes his head. “They don’t have enough food, and there are eight of them.”

“Who went with them?”

“That new group of people you ran into on the way back to the ranch. The ones forced to trade sex for supplies.”

“They all left?”

He nods.

“That woman named
Heather
took her baby out there?”

“Yes, she did,” Simone says cutting in. “They all spoke to me the night they got here and I explained how things used to be.”

“How they used to be? But you weren’t sure what the future at the ranch would be like,” I ask.

“Basically, yes. With all of these new people I don’t know what’s going on now or what will happen. And with you letting that psychopath Jeremiah live next door, I don’t know how long any of us have left, with or without the infected.”

I flush a bit red at being chastised by Simone in front of everyone.

“I thought we agreed that there wasn’t much of a choice in letting Isaac’s group come here.”

“I don’t mean letting them come here, I mean letting Jeremiah live. Apparently Jeremiah wasn’t very supportive of the efforts to send a rescue party out, and Timothy personally thought Jeremiah was going to try and kill you when he offered to go ahead of the group to
look
for us. If he is sending people out to kill you or trying to do it himself, how safe do you think our kids are?”

The outburst has me and everyone else stunned to silence. I don’t know what to say and not just because she has information that I don’t. She has to be pretty pissed for it to come to the surface like this right now.

“I didn’t know what Timothy thought or that Jeremiah was causing problems for a rescue mission. I assume he didn’t like us being on the rescue list. If you think he is posing a threat I’ll look into it, but don’t know exactly how to take care of him,” I say all of this while looking back and forth between her and Mike.

Mike, of course, has been living with Isaac’s group, and from what I understand, has been spending most of his time around Jeremiah and not Isaac, so the issue is particularly sensitive in this setting.

“That’s what I don’t get, Eddie!” she is fully yelling at me now. “I’ve had to deal with you nearly dying,
how many times in the past week
? I’m getting sick of it. I don’t know if it was that damn bite you got, but you’ve changed. Jeremiah is a threat to you, he is a threat to me and the kids, and when there is a threat to our family, you deal with it. You always have, but not now, and I want to know why?”

“Mike, would you mind leaving Hannah here for a little while? Go on downstairs but don’t leave. I’ll need to speak with you before you head back to the farm.”

Simone puts her hand to her face in an obvious sign of frustration. Whether she is frustrated more with me and my inaction or her own betrayal of confidence in front of Mike I’m not sure. Once Mike is gone, Simone shakes her head at me.

“I am so sorry, Eddie,” she says. “I completely forgot he was living at the farm. He is with Hannah so often now I just forgot.”

“But you aren’t sorry for yelling at me I take it?” I ask and smile.

“No, I’m not. Now what’s going on?”

“I am trying to keep track of what’s going on but my main reason for not acting on anything is
Isaac
. I’m not doing anything because I think he’s a good man, and he has a lot of good people in his group as well. As much as I like Arthur, and Timothy, or the others that have been here since the collapse, they aren’t going to be running things if something happens to us, Isaac is. And if Isaac has any kind of bitterness to our family and friends because I execute his brother with no just cause—”

“No just cause?” she says interrupting me. “Everyone knows he wants you dead and us gone. Even you think one of his people tried to kill you when you were shot. I know you have your own way of doing things, but I’m afraid for our kids on this and I’m used to you keeping me informed.”

“Eddie, I have to side with Simone on this one,” Arthur says. “Jeremiah is a danger to us all, and it was his own brother that brought that to your attention in the first place. How can you give him the benefit of the doubt when you weren’t willing to do it for those others at the store?”

“I know what most of our people think I am capable of, and yes, I guess most of your opinions are right. That doesn’t mean I will continue killing potential threats if the group thinks I shouldn’t. I’ve been trying to deal with this in a more reasonable and civilized manner since you intervened with how I planned on dealing with Dave Cromwell and the other people we weren’t going to bring with us.”

“They aren’t exactly the same type of threat that Jeremiah is,” Arthur offers.

“What were you planning on doing with them? You weren’t planning on just leaving them behind?” Erde asks.

“No. I was planning on killing them when we left. I thought they posed the same type of threat that a reporter named
Chad Hansen
did. He wanted help, and I refused him. That refusal ended with him amassing the army of infected that attacked us last winter. Leaving Dave and the others behind would have been no different. They knew they would die without us and would have every reason to join up with the next bunch of criminals that came through to try and kill everyone here at the ranch and steal the supplies.”

“So you knew them for a few hours, thought they might be a threat, and decided the best thing to do would be to kill them?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“And you planned on doing this on your own?”

“Yes, of course, but I was talked out of going through with it by Arthur and several of our other ranch leaders. I am often brutally vindictive to those that could harm people I love or care about. By any measure of rules, it is wrong, but I stopped living by the rules when your Zeus creation erased everything else. Playing by the rules and being civilized puts me and my loved ones at a disadvantage against every hateful criminal that is still alive out there. So
no
, I’m not ignorant of the severity of my decisions, and I do understand it is an extreme and morally wrong thing to do. However repugnant someone may consider my actions to be, my family is alive and well because of them.”

“Mr. Keeper, I think you are misunderstanding what I mean when I question how quickly you decided those people should die. Out of everyone left alive, I have done considerably more evil, albeit unintentional, with Zeus. I also did not make it from Portland to Grants Pass with Emily without having to do some very questionable things to survive. I’m just surprised that you came to the conclusion that they should die so quickly, but then determined you were wrong and let them live.”

I pause for a moment, curious that his words weren’t an outright denunciation of me.

“I don’t think I was wrong about them. I didn’t go through with it because I value the opinions of my group. That’s also one of the reasons why I haven’t done anything about Jeremiah. I don’t want to run this place on the fear that anyone I dislike will get killed. I respect the opinions of the people here and don’t want to alienate them.”

“I think Arthur and Simone should have let you do exactly what you planned to keep everyone safe,” Erde says firmly. “I was speaking with Mike earlier. He mentioned how frustrated Isaac has been since the day at they arrived here because Jeremiah is spending most of his time with Dave Cromwell and Sheila Jackson. Mike said Jeremiah spends more time with those two and himself than he does with his own people now. They seem to have a fair amount of interest and input into Jeremiah’s actions. You should speak with Mike about it. He was very candid with me. For the amount of time he said he spends with Jeremiah, I wasn’t convinced that he really liked the man.”

“I am aware of Dave’s and Sheila’s influence on Jeremiah. I’ve been keeping track of what he has been doing, or had been until a few days ago. Now before Mike runs and tells Jeremiah that I am being encouraged to kill him, would you all mind leaving for a while and sending Mike up here so he and I can have a chat?”

Simone gives my hand one more squeeze, and before she heads out I say, “I will still do what I need in order to keep our family safe. With so many more people involved, I’m just trying to be smarter in how I do everything.”

Erde nods and leaves as well.

“Arthur, I’m sorry about Randy. My life wasn’t worth the trade for any of the people we lost, but especially not your brother. He was a good man.”

“Thank you,” Arthur says and walks out.

Chapter 21

Setting Self-Destruct

“Eddie, you need to do something,” Simone says desperately. “Jeremiah is in the riding stable again preaching about demons.”

“I know.”

“Don’t tell me
I know
all calm like that,” she yells. “He has most of the Stick People on his side now, along with Isaac’s people as well.”

I stand up and pull Simone into an embrace she tries to struggle away from at first.

“There’s nothing I can do to stop him now, except walk in there, and kill him. You know what would happen to us and the kids if I did that. Those people aren’t just his friends. They are obsessed followers.”

“Go out there and talk to them,” she says forcefully while pulling away. “Tell them—”

“Tell them what, Simone? Tell them what they already know but don’t want to accept?” I say back in frustration over the whole situation. “Every one of those people knows what Erde did in creating this mess. They all know where this thing came from and have the same information we do, but they are scared about something we can’t change. Jeremiah has them fearing for their imaginary souls and craving an un-provable happy afterlife. Facts and evidence can’t compete against that kind of storytelling when people are waiting for thousands of infected to climb over the walls.”

“What are we going to do? He isn’t attacking us yet in his sermons, but it can’t be far off.”

“I’m going to take care of this, but I have to send the kids away first.”

“That’s why you’re so calm. You have a plan, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

*

“Greg is that you,” I ask over the Ham Radio.

“I’m here, Eddie.”

“How is your set-up there? Michael tells me you have a secure location where you don’t have to worry about the swarms.”

“We have to worry about them, but we set up some remote control sound towers to pull them back to Medford if they start heading out our way.”

“I have been working on something like that myself today.” I lower my head unable to keep the happy banter going. “Greg, I want to send you my children.”

There is a pause before we hear back from him. “Eddie, I have to warn you, we didn’t take much in the way of supplies with us. Only what we could carry in one truck. We are lucky to have made it where we are with what we have.”

“Supplies aren’t a problem, Greg, but a safe place is. I want to send my kids along with Erde and anyone from the original ranch group that wants to go to your location. Simone and I will be staying here, but I want a place at least for all the younger people like Donald’s son and daughter, and Ashley Dixon. I was hoping to send the people out to you with two semi-trucks full of food, guns, and ammunition. I even want to send Michael Palmer and his family out there so you’ll have an EMT on hand.”

“Eddie, is it that serious?” A woman’s voice asks over the radio.

“Who is this?”

“It’s Katherine Montgomery, from your store.”

“Katherine, you made it! I can’t believe it. How did you end up with Greg?”

“One of our spotters saw a truck trying to outrun a small swarm the other day, so we set off one of our sound towers to draw them away. Some of them turned away, but we still had a good fight on our hands to kill the rest that were after them. We brought Greg and his group to my place after they told us their story. He didn’t tell me who the crazy guy is that keeps letting people onto his ranch, and I didn’t think it would be you. What happened to building an Ark and not letting strangers on after the rain started?”

“You remember that huh? I was never good at taking my own advice.”

“Or you are too big a softy to turn people away.”

“Katherine, I bit off more than I can chew on this one. I tried keeping my enemy closer, but the guy that is the lead troublemaker seems to be insane and now there are a bunch of good people here that are in danger. I need a place to send them before a swarm shows up or Jeremiah blows his top. I think I can send you the two semi-trucks full of supplies like I mentioned if you can take these people in.”

“So it is that bad, isn’t it.”

“At the rate Jeremiah is building people into a religious fervor, I’m not sure if I have two days before he comes after us.”

“You are all welcome to come here even without the supplies, Eddie.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll have to stay here to finish this. He might let my children out of here, but he would come after me anywhere I go. If I came to your place, I would just be putting your people in danger without helping mine in the process.”

“I’ll let you know where to come. You have a paper, right?”

“You can tell Michael the directions after I’m gone. It’s better if none of us that are staying behind know where you are.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. It’s a shame people can’t come together in days like these. Good luck, Eddie.”

“Thank you, Katherine. Good luck to us all.”

*

“Dad, what did you say to Mike? I tried talking to him earlier, and he told me to leave him alone and that I should talk to you if I want to know why.”

“Mike is one of Jeremiah’s people now, Hannah. He heard us talking about the threat Jeremiah poses to us the other night, and I told him he has to stay away from you.”

“He wouldn’t avoid me like he has been if you just told him to stay away. He cares about me.”

“Hannah, you are twelve years old, and he is fourteen. What do you think I’m going to say? Do you think I’ll invite him in to the house so he can live with us?”

“So what if I’m twelve! I’ve done more things at twelve than you probably did in your first thirty years. I’m the team sniper, and you treat me like a child.”

“Being good with a gun doesn’t make you mature enough to be in a relationship.”

“Great! Well let me ask you two things. How old do I have to be before you think I’m old enough to start dating, and do you really think I can survive long enough to reach that age?”

“I don’t know, Hannah. I don’t have an answer for you that I can honestly give.”

“I only have a few months before I turn thirteen, and you know what, I’m counting every day because I don’t think I’ll live that long.”

I take a step back at the brutal truth of her words and they keep coming with increasing volume and emotion.

“Each and every day since we came to this ranch, I have wondered if tomorrow will be my last day. Am I going to die right away or will I get infected and have you or mom kill me? I have struggled with that constantly after the infection showed up in the world, and now I have to deal with you bringing psychopathic murderers onto the ranch that take my boyfriend away. He cares about me. I know he does, so you had to say something to him to make him to stay away. What did you say to him?”

It hurts to see Hannah so upset with me, but I am doing what every father is supposed to do for their children. I am keeping my child safe.

“I told Mike I may not be able to do anything about Jeremiah, but I could kill him at any time and no one would bat an eye. I told him he is a threat to our family and to stay away from you or I would kill him.”

Calmly and sincerely, she says,
I hate you
, and walks off.

*

“How are the defenses against the infected coming?” I ask Arthur.

“Good, so far. You can see we removed the dirt mounds circling the storage towers and placed all that dirt and some more inside them to fill them up. That gives us two towers of steel reinforced hills to fight from. It doesn’t matter how many infected press against the sides now, they won’t collapse.”

There are two towers on the property made of old shipping containers that were used for survival training on the ranch before the disease arrived. Each tower is a set of four containers stacked two high.

“Those towers helped us survive the last attack. Let’s hope they will do the same during the next one,” Arthur says.

“What’s with the ditch?” I ask pointing beyond the towers.

There is a groove carved in the earth about twenty yards east of the towers where I assume they got the remaining dirt to fill the bottom containers.

“It’s a moat,” he says smiling broadly. “At least it’s a good beginning to one. We needed the extra dirt and started digging and it just took shape. If you walk past the tower you’ll see the moat stretches from the north fence line to the south fence. If we continue to work on it, we could surround the whole property and dump our fuel or oil into it to burn if we get attacked. The slow infected would have walked right through it, but I bet the fast ones will avoid the fire.”

“That would have been great to see, Arthur. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll have the time to finish it. About the towers, I need you to make one change if you could.”

“What is it?”

“I would like one more storage container placed on top of each tower right in the center. Use the ones that we are emptying of stored goods. Then in the tops of those cut large holes in the top and weld steel bars across the opening so any infected that manage to climb up there aren’t able to get inside.”

“I could do that.”

“Good. How about the sirens? How many do we have?”

“Four of them, we just have to hook each one to a battery, and then run.”

On the scavenging trip before Hannah and her group got trapped, sirens were picked up to draw the infected to specific areas. We couldn’t decide what would be the best siren to look for but my daughter Olivia solved that problem for us. She recommended the civil defense sirens.
They are big, loud, and if you can get them to work, will be heard for miles
, she had said

“I’ll need one of them placed in each of those storage containers you cut the holes in and some type of pull line set up to activate them from the ground.”

“You can’t set them off in the containers. The sound will get amplified and pull every infected from Medford and Grants Pass to the ranch!”

“And the poor goats and chickens we’re going to leave in the containers are going to keep the infected here until they starve.”

Arthur looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.

“The ranch is lost, Arthur. Either it will be Jeremiah and his delusions or the infected and their disease. We can’t stay here, none of us.”

“I thought we were going to stay and fight?”

“Fight for what, this ranch? It’s a small piece of land in a world without people. We can take any property we find that isn’t occupied and build a new ranch. The supplies are replaceable as well. Not as easily right now, but in three months the world will belong to us again. I want to make sure there is someone around to enjoy it. Tomorrow, after the trucks leave with the kids, I want you to take everyone else from our group north on Wards Creek Road. Follow it around until you make it to The Oregon Vortex. I had Donald drop off a few truckloads of supplies there over the last month.”

“I was wondering why he was coming back occasionally with an empty truck.”

“Yeah, that was my doing.”

“You don’t sound like you’re coming with.”

“The goats and chickens are the bait to keep the infected here, and I’ll be the bait to keep Jeremiah and his group in place.”

*

“Isaac, I need to speak with you.”

“The towers at the end of the property look great, but how are we going to get so many people on those single storage containers at the top.”

“Those containers are only for the animals, not us. That’s not what I want to talk about.”

I guide him by the arm into the house and sit him down with Simone and me.

“I need to know your final assessment of Jeremiah. Is there any hope of reasoning with him?”

Isaac looks between us and shakes his head. “I don’t know him anymore. Ever since we met your group he has been obsessing over immunity and demons. He was never this bad before about the infected, or at least, I didn’t notice it before he was around other people.”

“You do know what is going to happen then? He is fixated on me and my family. I don’t think he will stop until I am dead, maybe all of us. I will do everything I can to prevent that from happening. That means I have to kill him. You understand that, right?”

“I thought if we came here, if we joined with your group and Jeremiah saw that our people don’t have to worry about starving or freezing this winter, that he would turn back from the path he was on. He has gotten worse, though. I haven’t been able to speak with him at all lately. I know you have to keep your family safe, but he is my brother, and I can’t condone your killing him. Can’t you just send him away?”

“Do you think I can just send him away?” I ask in return.

“No, you can’t. Give me one more chance to try and reach him. Mariah has said she wants to speak with him about her immunity, and she is convinced he will understand once they talk.”

“I hope for her sake—”

“Dad, Mike is coming to the house. I saw him through the window.”

“Hannah, I’m speaking with Isaac.”