DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (6 page)

“I realize this is going to be unpleasant, Mister Haynes,” Dr. Zahn said, “but I am going to need you to open your eyes.”

She was right. It was awful. I wanted to hurl, but I guess I didn’t have anything left in my system because I just dry heaved a little before settling down enough so that the doc could give me a checkup, which apparently included shining lights with the intensity of a thousand suns directly into each eye.

“Definitely a concussion,” Dr. Zahn mumbled as she did her thing.

Of course this was also giving me a chance to get a look around. I was not in my room…or even in my apartment for that matter. I was in some sort of medical ward. I did not realize that we had gotten this far along with our settlement that we had anything like this in place.

At last, the torture was over and Dr. Zahn started making notes on her clipboard. Which led me to my next thought which was,
Wow, Dr. Zahn has on scrubs and is carrying a clipboard…this is almost like a real doctor’s office
.

“Can I speak to him now?” Jake pushed his way through the small group clustered around my bed.

“Yes, but keep it brief, he needs his rest.” The doc turned to everybody else in the room and made a shooing gesture with her hands. “As for the rest of you…out. The young man needs his rest.”

I made eye contact with Katrina who I could tell wanted to stay. I hoped my look conveyed that I was okay. I sure could use Jamie right about now to tell me what to do.

“So, Billy, what the hell happened?” Jake asked the moment the room was empty.

I related everything I could remember. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much. I’d had a few concussions over the years from football, so I knew for a fa
ct that I was definitely not able to give the man what he needed.

“Katrina was in my room,” I finally admitted. “
Luckily she stayed hidden or something because those goons never found her. If they had, I would almost bet she would have been taken along with or instead of Carol.”

Jake gave me his best country boy smile. It didn’t help that I knew this aspect of him was all a big façade that he kept in place so folks underestimated him; I wasn’t sure how to interpret that smile.

“So…getting yourself a little action,” Jake said with a laugh. “Good thing, you definitely needed something to get your mind right.”

I wasn’t going to even hazard a guess as to what he was tr
ying to imply. Instead, I forced myself to sit up just a little bit straighter despite how bad it made my head throb.

“Listen, we don’t have a lot of time.
Those guys were not the sort to kid or make idle threats. We will start getting deliveries that I’d just as soon not have to open.”

“I have a few ideas about where they could be posting up,” Jake admitted. “I just wish that you were okay to come with me. I don’t know much about some of these new people and I don’t know any of them well enough to try and plan a mission like this.”

“Simon Paul is a good choice,” I suggested. “He was the leader of his group, and I think he could hold his own.”

Check me out…giving recommendations about who would be best to run an assault mission on an enemy camp.

Jake gave me a nod and then got up and headed for the door. He paused, but he didn’t look back. “Get better, kid. We are gonna need you on your feet.”

After he left, I leaned back and closed my eyes. I was star
ting to feel less like Billy Haynes, the high school kid, and more like Billy Haynes…a man. It felt strange to even think such a thing. But if I was being honest with myself…that was what was going through my head.

***

“What in the world do you think you are doing?” Dr. Zahn’s voice came from behind me and caused me to jump.

“I need to get out and help do something.” It
probably would have played a lot better if I hadn’t taken that moment to get a little woozy and almost trip.

“You are in no condition to go out and do much of an
ything,” the doctor insisted.

There was a time when that woman scared the piss out of me. Now, I just saw her as an overprotective grandmother type. Sure, she was an actual doctor and was probably basing her opinion on something besides her concern for my general we
lfare, but I could not stay in that bed another minute.

“Tonight is the deadline…I can’t just lay here and do not
hing.”

“Jake and a team are out searching, there is absolutely not
hing that you can do…especially on your own.”

“Is anything being done to increase security?” I asked.

“Everybody has been moved close and a mandatory buddy system has been put in to place,” the doctor said.

I noti
ced that she had crossed her arms and taken a position in my doorway. Did she think that I could not move her aside? Not that I was planning on getting rough with Dr. Zahn or anything, but it was almost funny the way she had set herself like she believed that it would really stop me if I made up my mind to go somewhere.

Then it dawned on me. “You a
re buddied up with me, aren’t you?”

Dr. Zahn smiled.

“But what—” I started to ask about Katrina and snapped my mouth shut. I was not ready to give that information out just yet, and I had no idea how she felt about our relationship being public. The only reason that I said anything to Jake is because I knew he would not judge or say a word to anybody. He was not what you might consider a “chatty” sort of guy.

“This is the only way that I was going to be able to get ou
tside of the compound proper,” Dr. Zahn said with a sly smile. “I know very well that you don’t want to just sit around and wait. So, you can gear up and get out of here to see what you can do to help, and I get to have your services for one little thing.”

“And what might that be?” I asked. This was not like Dr. Zahn at all. Or at least this was not the Dr. Zahn I was familiar with.

“Just you never mind for right now. I will let you know the details when the time comes.”

If that was how she wanted to play things, then fine. As long as I could suit up and get
the heck out of here. Sure, as far as plans were concerned…I didn’t really have one. However, I needed to feel like I was doing something to help Carol.

I was a little surprised to find all my field gear in the closet here in this little hospital room, or whatever this place was that they had brought me.

I was strapping on my shin guards when the doc came back in. I don’t think I had ever actually seen her dressed for the field. When we had been on the move, she might have worn a heavy coat and a set of gloves, but now she was decked out in the works: lined gloves with studs on the back, goggles, full leathers, and she even had a catcher’s chest plate on. If all of that was not enough, she was packing a long blade on each hip and some sort of staff over her left shoulder.

“Let’s go…we’re burning daylight,” Dr. Zahn urged.

Why was I getting the feeling that there was a whole lot more going on than I was aware? I can’t ever recall her being this impatient. Okay, let me rephrase that. This whole thing about wanting to get out of whatever place we were currently calling home. Yeah, she had gone out with Jon and Steve once that I knew of. Also, I seem to recall her venturing out with Sunshine on a few occasions for various plants and whatever else they were using for some of those potions and crap that tasted so nasty. But beyond that, she was a camp fixture.

Once I was ready, we headed outside. It was way brighter than I was
prepared for at first. I had not realized how gloomy my room was until that first burst of sunlight caught me square in the eyes. I had to take a second to get my bearings and realized that we had done a lot of work on Winters’ compound in just a short time. For one, all of the breaches in the walls had been repaired.

However, I was noticing something that was remarkably di
fferent from when Jon, Jake, and I had first set foot inside the walls. Even with the possibility of imminent danger, people were out and about doing “normal” things. I spotted Thalia, Levant, and Rabia in a big open space where a dozen people were building a large play structure. Personally, I did not think we were at that point where play structures merited a spot in the daily work detail, but maybe it was more to keep the kids occupied and out of the way than anything else.

I turn
ed to look at the building that I had exited and saw the universal sign of a big Red Cross hanging above the entry. Also, there was a really tall flag pole with a white flag sporting the Red Cross symbol as well. I guess that would make it easy for anybody in the city to see. Again, not sure if I agreed with that idea; if you asked me, it was an invitation for trouble.

We headed for the main gate. The sentries waved at us as we approached. I did not recognize either of them, but I guess Dr. Zahn had already told them to expect us
, because they simply opened the gates to let us out and told us to “be careful” as they shut the gates behind us.

“You been planning this?” I asked as we headed down a street that was being cleaned by teams of men and women.

It seemed that folks really have been busy. That is one thing about being out in the field. I guess the best I can compare it to is when you have a friend you don’t see for a while and they gain or lose weight in that period. It seems so drastic, but that is just because you missed everything in between.

I saw a few burn piles in some of the dirt lots. One in parti
cular was well over the length of a football field and the bodies were stacked at least five or so feet high. I did not have the ability to picture us securing this entire city. For one, while we had increased our numbers, we still had nowhere near enough people to man the defenses. I was not sure exactly how big the city of La Grande might be, but I knew it was a few miles across; and then there was all of the farmland that surrounded it. That was the real prize if we were going to survive.

Food was becoming an issue
, and I knew for a fact that we could not survive this coming winter if we did not plant crops and have a good harvest. Nothing but canned goods were still okay from before the zombie thing, and that kind of find was becoming increasingly difficult to locate.

Honestly, I had no idea how we were going to actually pull off taking an entire city, even one as small as La Grande. And there is a funny thought. Before all of this, a town like La Grande just would not register to me as being anything but some po-dunk stop on the way to hunting, camping, or fishing. But now, with the task ahead of clearing this place out and making it somewhere that we could settle in and start new lives, this place might as well be New York or Los Angeles.

Almost as a reminder, a few zombies came stumbling around a corner about three blocks ahead. I jogged up and put them down and then returned to the doctor’s side. She was obviously going to a specific location. Twice she had paused and glanced at street signs.

“You want to fill me in on the details?” I finally asked. I was not pushy or impatient, but I decided that if the doc had something in mind, I might be of more use if I knew exactly what.

Dr. Zahn stopped so suddenly that I had to jump to the side in order not to collide with her and send her sprawling. When she turned to face me, she had a look on her face that I swear was embarrassment…or guilt.

“I’m sorry, Billy,” she said in a voice that sounded tired.

I remembered back to when Teresa and Jamie had died. There was a period of time where the doc was more like a frail old lady and nothing like the take charge person I’d first met. This was almost how she had sounded back in those dark days after probably my best friend in the world had killed himself.

“Sorry about what?” That seemed like the best and most logical question.

“I know that you want to help Jake and the others find Carol…but I really have no idea where they went or where to begin to search.”

“Then what in
the world are we doing out here?” It wasn’t that I was scared to be outside the gates, but if I was going to be wandering around in zombie country, I sure as hell needed to have a reason.

“We need to capture a zombie.”

The way she said it, it almost sounded like no big deal. Only…it was a FREAKIN’ HUGE deal. Obviously my feelings came out in my expression, because the doc was holding her hands up as if she thought I might just suddenly turn and run.

“I have a reason.”

I crossed my arms across my chest and waited. This had better be good. By the time she finished explaining, I could not say that it was a “good” reason, but it was at least one that I could understand. I also think I figured out why Dr. Zahn had brought me along. Much the same reason I had not had any problems talking about my relationship with Katrina to Jake. There are some people that you know you can’t say anything to if you want to keep it a secret. Dr. Zahn worked with Sunshine a lot; if I wanted to get information out to everybody in a speedy manner, she is the one I would pull aside and say that I had a secret she had to promise to keep. It wasn’t that she was a bad person…just a blabber mouth.

Eventually we reached the bridge that took us over the Grande Ronde River, which acted as a sort of natural barrier on La Grande’s north side. I was surprised to discover a ten person sentry detail; Dr. Zahn was not.