Controlling the Dead (22 page)

 “The guys are trying to quiet everyone down. I guess some people think having the forsaken protect them is ludicrous.” She brings the cup to her lips. “I imagine they are right.”

“It’s not forever. I don’t see what the big deal is. They put famished on mechanical bulls and use them for dart boards.”

“I know that, but they don’t see it that way. They think it’s like the base. A scare tactic for control.”

I hadn’t thought of it that way. “Shit, I better get out there.” I hope everyone will take it as is. I dress quick without knowing what I put on and go down to the courtyard.

When people see me, dead silence. Mac sags in relief, running over to me. “We are getting them to accept it, but I think you need to show your zombie magic.”

Zombies stop milling around to watch me from outside the fence. I point to them, and everyone turns to watch. The zombies lower to the ground, stretching their bodies out on the ground. Gasps and whispers float through the courtyard.

“I want everyone to live like before. I want you to have your own house. Drive your own car to go to work. Go to the grocery store. I want your children to get an education. This is for your safety, please, our time is coming. This is a bump in the road.” I hate to bring up such things, but hope blooms on faces. Something I’ve never seen here before. It’s such a change, the tension in the air lessens with the morale boost.

Guido watches me make my empty speech. I can see on his face he does not want what I want, and I’m going to have to keep an eye on him. “I need your cooperation and patience for the answers, because I don’t have them yet.” I swallow. Everyone glances around and whispers among them break out. For now.

“I don’t think Guido likes this much,” I tell Mac and we both watch him pace.

Mac scoffs, “Course he doesn’t. He likes to rule his kingdom. Rudy told me what he did last night. If I was there, he’d be dead.”

“You’re trigger happy. I don’t know how you’re still alive.”

His brow lowers, “Because I’m trigger happy.”

*

Mago and Leila return in less than a week with his own team. They are coming with us to Montana, and all we need is to hear word from Kale. Gwen suspects people will be coming back with him.

We have a route mapped out. The worst part of this whole mission is we don’t know the layout of the compound. Mago says it’s probably ten times the size of the base we already broke into. The only thing to do now is wait. Wait, wait, wait.

*

My dad sat at his desk, tinkering with some gadget, but this was nothing new for him.

“What’s that?” I leaned against his desk.

“A stopwatch. It stopped working and I’m going to see if I can fix it.” I watched him play with the insides. Although, it was more my curiosity with his fascination.

That was the day he taught me how one works. He always had an interest for things like that, but I think it’ll help me now.

I burst through the door. Sawdust covers every surface of the room. Reece wears a dust mask and looks at me like I shouldn’t be in here. He holds a tube in his hand, and it’s full of the sawdust. I shouldn’t, but what I have to show him might help us tremendously.

Throwing me a mask, he says, “If you’re going to be in here, I’m putting you to work.”

I grin and hold up the digital watch in my hand. “I think we can triple the power. We’ll need to make a loot trip for more.”

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
F
OUR

A week and a half later, Rudy and I laugh at one of my sketches of him when the door opens. He sighs. “Do people think your loft has an open door policy?”

Gwen stands there with a young blonde woman. “Sorry to interrupt, but Kale is back, and I want to introduce you to everyone,” she says. I sit up from my lounge on the bed.

Blondie smiles. At Rudy, but drops her smile when she notices my scowl. I suppress the urge to roll my eyes as he fights off a pleased grin. “Okay, Gwen.”

Mac rushes through the door in long strides. It’s the first I’ve seen of him in days. Blondie turns and sees him. “Hello, Mac.”

He scoffs at her, “Sure.”

“I’m Kan,” I say and hold out my hand.

“I know.”

I glance to Gwen. “This is Madison, Maddie. She’s from our old neighborhood in Chattanooga.”

Mac speaks to Maddie. “What are you doing here? Should have stayed there.”

She flips her natural highlights behind her shoulder, “I was getting bored. You don’t get to have all the adventure.” She half shrugs, “Besides, Gwen wasn’t there to tell me no.”

 Gwen shakes her head. “Go get them. I’ll make tea,” she says to Maddie.

Eventually our team and the team from Arizona trickle in. Gwen makes introductions. She introduces the team plus, Julie, Mago, and Leila. They take in Mago with interest. Of course, they’ve already met Mac and Kale. Then she gets to the others. She tells our team about Maddie, who peeks at Rudy in a way that makes me want to scratch out her eyes, but he’s oblivious to it.

One man, Nastas, is tall, of some native descent, with reddish brown skin and straight, salt and pepper hair. His face is aged with wisdom. Gwen says he is excellent in healing. That we’ll probably need. Mac should be relieved to have help in that area.

Sander is shorter than Nastas, with jet black hair and big brown eyes that remind me of Malachi’s. He’s alert, taking in every nook and cranny.

Another woman introduces herself as Nita. She’s frail with white hair. I don’t like judging books by their cover, but how is she going to help us with survivors? She grins. “I’m tougher than I look. I was a therapist, and we figured the survivors could use some extra support on the trips back, instead of waiting.”

I smile and nod, “Good idea.”

They all shake my hand and appraise me. I shoot Kale a look. What has he told them about me? “Nice to meet you all. We’re planning to leave the night you got here.” That would be tonight. Everyone starts speaking in pleasantries at once and shaking hands.

Sander’s gaze moves to my hips. “You need to eat some cookies, mamacita.” He raises his head, his eyes widen at whatever he sees. Rudy stands from his perch on the end of the bed and introduces himself. Sander says something in Spanish, and I catch the words
huevos
and
grande
. Rudy’s eyebrows shoot upward. Nastas calls out a warning in Spanish and Sander laughs, clapping his hands, “Back to business.”

Nastas casts a curious glance at me. “I’ve never seen anything like the forsaken outside.”

“I have.” I glance at Mago, whose face is empty. Turning to Nastas, I continue, “You’ll see more of it. I assure you.”

Sander gets right to business in his thick, Hispanic accent—his earlier impudence gone in a snap. “We all drove a vehicle. It’ll be tight, but we can fit up to eight people in each, and we have one bus.”

“A bus? What about gasoline?” This is from Reece.

Sander gets to this one, too, “Got it covered, seńor bald man. We’ve mapped out routes for hidden resources.” He pulls out a map, laying it flat on the table.

I sigh. All the planning we arranged, wasted. We retrace our maps and strategize looting for everything else on the trip there.

By the time everything pans out, we’re starving. We slice up raw veggies and fruit platters. Nastas offers fresh deer jerky to everyone’s delight. They chat about this and that in a bumble of noise.

Rudy leans over. “Mission possible, or impossible?”

I smile, “I think we’ll be okay.”

Mac interrupts, “She’s right, Rudy man.”

“You know we will be gone for a while,” I tell Mac with a serious expression. “What if the Coalition finds out you’re gone?”

He grins. “Nothing to worry about, Sunshine.” I balk at his lack of concern and narrow my eyes at him in suspicion. Mac sighs, glancing between Rudy and me. “Leave it be, will you?” He spins away from us as Rudy and I eye each other with trepidation at Mac’s behavior.

Soon everyone starts to disperse, preparing to travel. We hope to hit the first spot by midnight, where everyone can gas up and set up camp. I help Gwen and Mac clean up and pack some things that’ll be easy to travel with. Mac looks at the stuff his mom is packing, scratching his head. “You don’t need all that shit, Ma.”

The door opens and Jocko appears. Mac tenses. “What?” he snaps.

“Guido wants ta speak wit yew, urgently.” He turns and leaves right away.

I scoff. “Rude. He could have knocked.”

Mac shakes his head. “Be right back.”

After he’s gone, Gwen and I exchange looks. I shrug and continue to dump out my pack to clean it out. I fold the clean clothes Gwen and I washed a few days ago, shoving them into the bottom of the bag. Stuffing in my old boots, extra granola bars, ammunition, my notebook, sketchpad, and plenty of writing utensils, I decide to toss in the useless laptop.

I’m wondering if I can grab a shower when Mac storms into the loft with a bag over his shoulder, Reece and Rudy in tow. “—faster than a car. I’ll be back here by morning and can catch up to you at the first spot by the time you leave,” he finishes, giving me enough to suspect what’s going on.

“What?” I demand. “What now?”

Mac sighs, “I’m going to Birmingham. I’m taking Reece’s hog, and I’ll meet everyone by tomorrow night.”

I lay my pack next to the door. “Why? Guido has everything he needs.”

Gwen is stunned. No help from that corner.

Mac pulls dog tags from his bag and puts them on. They don’t clink when hitting his chest because thick plastic edges them, preventing them from touching. “He doesn’t know when I’ll be back.” He shoves the bag at Gwen.

Gwen speaks up. “You should have someone go with you.”

“I will,” I volunteer. We need to keep to the buddy system. Mac’s behavior leaves me curious, and this might be a way to find something out. I peer at Rudy and he nods his head a fraction, hopefully, understanding what I want to do. Mac’s tongue works the inside of his lip.

“You know you can’t. I’ll have to tell them who you are.”

Rudy sighs and sits on the bed. I go with a plan B, “Then I’ll wait here, since you’ll be back by morning.”

Mac’s gaze finally focuses on me, “If that’s what you want to do.”

“Yes, I will, too,” Gwen says, hugging her son. “Be careful.”

He grins at us when he walks out the door. I follow, watching him hop down the stairs as the wooden posts Rudy rigged groan in protest.

*

No one has a problem with Gwen and I staying behind for Mac. In fact, Kale stays behind to spend a little more time with Samantha, who is taking care of Dex while we are gone. Everyone thinks it’s a good idea to stick to the buddy system. At least we’ll have a small group catching up to the rest of the team.

Gwen and I help the team pack up to leave. We make a big batch of homemade flour tortillas and fill them with beans, ground meat, and chopped tomatoes. As people roam in and out of the loft eating and drinking, obvious excitement about the trip fills the air

Rudy is one of the last, and motor oil covers his hands, arms, and clothes. I raise my brows at him. “There was an oil leak, had to fix it. Someone didn’t screw the filter on good.” He, Reece, and Mac serviced the vehicles days ago. I get a clean washcloth and hand it to him. Gwen holds out a clean T-shirt. He takes them gratefully.

“What are you driving?” I ask.

“My truck. We’ve stored all the bombs in the vault.” He smirks and glances at Gwen, “I think they’re shocked at our resources.”

She laughs. “I’m sure. They aren’t used to defending themselves from the forsaken. They haven’t done it in a long time.”

Maddie bounces in the room with a flurry of blond hair. “Oh, I’m fucking hungry!” She grabs a burrito as Gwen shoots her a motherly glare. “I think I got Julie convinced to ride with me,” she tells Rudy and ignores Gwen, bringing him a burrito.

I go over to the tub and start filling a pot to boil bath water in. Rudy fixed the faucet right after Gwen moved in with me. Maddie continues to flirt. My face pinches, and I don’t want anyone to see it. My hand slips on the handle and water spills all over the floor. “Shit!”

Maddie’s face screws up as she scarfs down her burrito. “I’ll see you later, Gwen.” She gives her a hug before shooting Rudy a grin and leaving.

Gwen throws me a large blanket. “Mop it up with that and throw it over the railing outside to dry.”

Rudy bends down to help, looking amused.

“You laughing at me?”

“I can’t help it jealousy makes you clumsy, Darlin’.”

“I am not. I don’t have anything to be jealous over.” I look at him sideways for verification.

“No, you don’t,” he confirms, picking up the blanket and carrying it to the railing outside.

I set about making my own burrito and wrap up another one, holding it out to Rudy. “For the road?” He can eat two more by himself.

“Awe, you’re going to make me feel special.” Dimples dot his cheeks

I beam right back.  “You are, Rudolph.”

“Thanks for the food,” he says, watching Gwen flurry about.

“No problem. You take care of those people,” Gwen says. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes, ma’am!” He looks to me, “You’ll be okay?”

“Of course. We’ll see you tomorrow.” I don’t look up as he walks out.

Gwen’s eyes twinkle. “Poor, poor dear. Got a good lookin’ man fawning all over her.” She feigns pity.

I laugh. “Do not.” I throw a towel at her.

She catches it, and her face lights up. “Oh, I finished the head wrap.” She pulls it out of her jewelry bag. The wrap is a net with complicated braids like an extra thick headband. The beads sit intricately on the netting cross sections.

“Cool.” I untie my thick braid, let loose my little locks, and tie it around my head. Her eyes gleam happily.

She arranges and plays with the locks. “It’s the perfect size.” The net pattern stretches to hug my head. It isn’t going anywhere.