Deadfall: Hunters (16 page)

At her residence, which was as official looking as any small village house could be, she asked if I wanted ice water. I was a bit stunned at the offer, but it turned out she had a working ice machine that they kept running with a small generator during the day. They did this to have ice to use in the clinic, for injuries, if needed. On this ‘special’ occasion, ice water was fantastic. After months of hot weather, ice water was an extraordinary treat.

It was over this ice water that Sarah finally broke down about her father. She had found out that Abraham was an actual doctor, and not just the witch kind. It had been her suggestion to keep him around. They had nurses, but doctors were an invaluable resource. Apparently, the disagreement with her father had been severe. When he skipped town, it was her group of nurses, herself and four others, that had remained behind. She felt she was needed in the village.

I could tell that she hated talking about her father. It’s one thing if you disagree with your father, it’s another if you suddenly find out your father just might be a cruel, racist man. Those things hit home really hard. She never came out and said it, so I can only assume that’s why she was disappointed.

So along with the five nurses, four others stayed with them. One of them was Sarah’s eight year old son. She must have read my face as I wondered if I dared ask if the father left. Turns out he did leave, just, about seven years ago. She had brought her son, Clayton, along to Haiti instead of leaving him with her sister because most of her family was already there in Haiti. Turns out that likely saved his life.

Sarah described the hellish condition the village was in until Abraham showed up. I told her that the doctor had let me know she was the boss. She laughed at that. “He lets me act the part, but he’s the real leader here.” Once he was in town, and especially after the other Americans left, order was restored. She spoke highly of the doctor, just as he had of her.

There I was, shaking the ice at the bottom of my cup, about to ask for more water, when she finally asked the question. Why was I here? I was about to go with some of my standard non-answer answers when I remembered that I had spilled my guts to the doctor that very morning. It was quite likely he would tell her everything anyways. So I told her. I didn’t tell her the whole story, but the main answer. We were there looking for someone named Abraham, a man my father had met and who he, my father, thought had answers for the zombie plague. As it turned out, we did find a man with that name, here in Haiti, in her very village. That in itself was quite a coincidence.

She was quiet for a while. I wasn’t sure if I should have said something else, but I wanted to let it sink in. Also wanted to see if she believed me. There were times I didn’t believe myself.

Sarah began by explaining that she was lucky. She and the others had barely seen any zombies, and certainly hadn’t witnessed any of the carnage and destruction that so many of us were familiar with. I could relate, I had remained safe in our mountain house while the world was falling apart. It wouldn’t be till later that I saw the true visage of death. She had heard more than enough from those survivors that made it to their village, but she considered herself lucky. Once in a while, a zombie or two would wander near the village, but they were easily dispatched.

She confessed though, that after Abraham showed up, they hadn’t seen a single one. There were many possible explanations for that, but the villagers believed what Abraham had told them. They would be safe there, no zombie would come there. And so it had been.

“So have you found you answers?”

I hadn’t. In fact, I had far more questions. I wanted to ask her, but she could only shrug her shoulders. She was only there to help the people of the village and to try to survive. For the moment, their thought was only on planting and raising animals for food. But soon, if they did survive, they would have to look further into the future. They would have to leave the safety of their village here and survive the hordes out there.

It was the same, I assumed, back in my part of the world. It made me wonder just what was going on up there, if they had survived that disaster at Carolina Beach. I had to brush that memory from my mind. I didn’t like thinking back to it.

I went back to the group after our little meeting. I had agreed to meet her that afternoon for a tour of the village. She came around two, per my still functional watch. Not sure what time it actually was in Haiti. Not that it really mattered. We all tagged along this time. One good thing had come from the apocalypse. Everyone had been able to upgrade their homes. Brick houses in all nearby villages were cannibalized and returned to this village, so everything looked newer. They had even managed to build a large well in the middle of the town with a large cistern for collecting the water. To top it off, they had an electric pump for the water. It was certainly an upgrade over anything they had in the past. I didn’t think it was possible to not have running water, even here, but somehow it was.

Tague asked about the electricity for the pump and Sarah took us out the stream that ran out next to the village, towards the east. They had rigged a regular gasoline generator onto a large wooden paddle that spun in the stream, turning the generator. The paddle looked like it was made from assorted metal and wooden pieces, put together with an assorted set of screws and nails. It worked, to a degree. They didn’t have any wires to run the electricity back into the village. Instead, they had salvaged all of the car and marine batteries they could find. They would charge them up and then take them into town to run a few spots, mainly the water pump and some lights. If you were able to find your own battery, then you could run lights in your own house. Impressive.

We then headed out to the fields just north of the town. Looks like they were growing corn. Good staple crop that could grow anywhere. There some other fields with other stuff growing there. What really stuck out to me was one field a couple of men were plowing. Two were using a large bull like cow. That is a scientific term. But, on the far side of the field, two men had three goats tied onto a wooden plow. GOATS. I didn’t even think that was possible. There were plenty of rows plowed behind them, but it just didn’t seem like the goats were doing anything.

Sarah explained that while some of the villagers had grown food before, most of them had not. Many were unemployed before Deadfall, or had to go down into the bigger towns to work with whatever they could. Those who had fled from the cities to the village had next to no knowledge. Some learned from the few that knew, but most just learned as they went. Trying to use a goat to plow fields was one of those moments.

Sarah laughed at it as well, but admitted to being nearly as inept as most. When it came to nursing, she had it down, but she was the first to say that she was deathly afraid at the prospect of trying to survive. While she laughed at the men and the goats, she was very aware that could easily have been herself trying to get the goats to work.

We were all invited to her house that night for a meal. This is where we met her son, Clayton. Nothing stuck out more here than a blonde white kid with blue eyes. He was energetic and talkative, just like someone who hadn’t lived through the horrors most had. He hadn’t. Innocence of childhood was a precious commodity these days. It made me remember the faces on those kids in Cuba. Full of hatred and anger.

It’s moments like those that make me forget about everything. We had roasted pig shoulder and potatoes. To top it off, there were some fresh tomatoes and some kind of fruit drink. She had clearly gone all out for this. They didn’t typically eat like this, but I was thankful she did tonight. She had invited Abraham as well, but apparently he had left town. Someone mentioned he would be gone for a few days. It turns out he did this from time to time, although no one knew where he went.

Back in our house, we had a discussion. We agreed we would wait for Abraham to come back and try to get the answers we hoped for. Maxie really wanted to be headed back to the states before hurricane season came full force. Problem was, we had come down here for a reason, and we still didn’t know what that reason really was. Maxie didn’t feel comfortable sticking around away from his boat. He would take one of the pair of walkies and leave the other one with us. The boat was about ten miles away, so still within range. I’m not sure just how comfortable I was with all of this, but he was worried about someone finding the boat. I did ask what would happen if he got into trouble, but he just answered by saying he had his ways. He’s gonna leave tomorrow morning. Emma helped find someone who would go with him to make sure he got there.

The rest of us are going to see just how we can pitch in and help until the doctor shows up. But when he does, I hope he’s ready to give us the answers we need. In the meantime, I better have the right questions.

The one thing that I have learned to this point, in this world, is that nowhere is safe enough. I had been through more than enough situations where it seemed, by all means and manners, that it was the safest place possible. How could you not be safe surrounded by soldiers? On a solitary boat in the middle of the ocean? Even my mountain fortress probably had its own safety issues.

Now, if you have followed my story, then a logical conclusion would be to just point out that trouble followed me. I certainly felt like that at times. I was certainly at that point today. Why? Because, yet again, trouble found us.

It has been four days since I wrote my last entry. We were just waiting around for Abraham to show up from whatever mini trip he had taken. I still find it odd that he decided to leave when I arrived. One would think the revelations we had both shared would have kept him around, but it didn’t. The events of these past couple of days make it more urgent for me to speak to him.

So on to our troubles.

Day one was about as normal as it could be. We went around and helped people out with different tasks. It was fun, although I felt like we were more in the way than anything. Regardless, everyone was cheerful about having us tag along. A few could talk, but for the most part, we got by with pointing fingers and nodding. Still, it was a good day. It didn’t rain, and it’s funny that this is how I remember things now. I spent most of the day by the stream. The village was working on redirecting the river into a large pond area. They had dammed up a whole section and were just digging away to bring a portion of the stream into the new dug pond. I didn’t quite get a clear explanation as to why they wanted this, especially since they had a working well. It was close enough to the fields, so maybe it was for irrigations purposes, but in this tropical island where it rained all the time, I didn’t think they needed that. It didn’t matter. They were doing it and it was more than easy enough for me to shovel along with the men. It did get hot in a hurry though. Thankfully, most of the work was in the shade of trees.

Tague and Janine had gone with another group to help separate young piglets from their mothers. They were going into new pens where they would be fattened up for food or for more breeding. Tague told me later that it was the happiest he had ever seen Janine. Even the horror hardened twelve year old girl softened when dealing with baby piglets. I don’t remember how she was that night because I was exhausted. Kind of wish I had talked to her that night. She’s really the only one in the group that doesn’t open up to me.

Blevin spent his day at the still. Apparently, the big guy had quite a good deal of knowledge in distilling spirits. If that didn’t completely stereotype him as an Irish man, then nothing else would. He helped them greatly upgrade their stills to make them far more productive and taught them how to make several different kinds of alcohol, for drinking and otherwise. He seems to have made many friends that day. He joked a bit about being the only guy who didn’t have to do much manual labor.

So as you can see, it was a nice day. A fulfilling day. Just one of those days that made you feel good. As we ate that evening, and exchanged stories of our deeds that day, well, it just felt good. I should have known better.

Tague woke me up that night. I thought it was the middle of the night, but it was just barely 10:00 p.m. Someone was blowing one of those air horns used at sporting events. Blevin had already rushed out to find out what was going on and came rushing back into the house just as I was getting dressed and tying my boots back on.

“Zombies.”

I have to admit that the moment I heard that word, my heart sank. It wasn’t an “oh shit!” kind of moment, but a “dammit” kind. We took our gear with us as we headed out the door. For me, it was my gladius, but for Blevin, that meant his hands. Tague had his gun and Janine grabbed a spear she had fashioned herself. We headed out to where the air horn was shrieking, the whole time thinking they really needed to stop blasting the whole countryside with that thing.

We rushed out the south side of the village, exactly where we had entered it to begin with. A small crowd had formed there already, some with weapons, others just curious, I guess. It was a disaster waiting to happen. When they saw us, everyone parted, as if we were the experts at dealing with them. Most of the women went running back into the village, darting into homes and behind the houses. We looked around in the near pitch darkness of the moonless night. We asked where they were, with Tague translating as best he could. People were pointing everywhere.

Sarah joined us as we were peering into the darkness. Directly ahead of us was the dirt road that led into the village. About seven hundred feet from the village, the road disappeared into the mountainside forest. Two large trees, one on either side of the road, were about halfway between the edge of the trees and the village itself. When Sarah showed up, she began asking where the zombies where, and they directed her to one of the trees. We walked carefully, and there we saw the creature. A man at one point, standing around the tree as if it were lost. At its feet was another zombie with a caved in skull, crumbled in an awkward position. The man that had found the now dead zombie was standing next to Sarah and was talking to her.

As we walked up to the tree, the lone zombie turned towards us and began walking in our direction. It came at us quite slowly, so much so that for a moment, we all stood there, still. Janine then stepped forward, and ran her spear through its face. As it dropped, it took her spear with it to the ground.

The air horn blasted again, somewhere behind us. Tague went rushing back through the crowd that had grown in size again, found the guy, and took it from him. As Sarah looked at us, I quickly explained that silence was the best defense. Tague and Blevin ran up ahead to scout out the road while I urged Sarah to get the villagers to clear up and head out. They returned ten minutes later but had found nothing else.

Now for us, two zombies was nothing. I could probably walk circles around a zombie if I really wanted to. But for the villagers, who hadn’t seen a zombie in months, this was a very big deal. All of their security and safety had been shattered by those two shamblers. Sarah was quite distressed by it all as well. I tried my hardest to calm her down. I told her about how I had lived in the mountains in North Carolina and I very rarely saw zombies. They just didn’t seem to go uphill if they didn’t have to. I tried time and time again to let her know that we had plenty of experience with zombies, and that there just wouldn’t be anymore. Those two were probably just stragglers. Regardless, Sarah instructed six men watch guard on that side of the village and had six more wander around all night.

I went back to the house to go back to sleep in the safe assumption that I was right.

I was wrong.

The next two wandered into view that next morning. The panicked shouts and screams echoed out through the village and some kids came running to our house calling for us, since apparently, we were now the experts. We got back out there just as the two walkers were halfway between the edge of the woods and the two trees. Again, they were walking very slowly, just as we had seen in the past. Now, granted, these mountains in Haiti weren’t anywhere near the height of those in North Carolina, but the roads and terrain were just as bad.

Again, I have to remind you that while the villagers were worked up into a panic, we were just fine. It was just two more slow zombies, which Tague took care of on his own. The problem was that now it was four zombies, and that was more than they had seen the entire time up here in the village since Deadfall. And all in just a few hours. Now, we were quite biased. Four zombies were nothing. But, taking everything into consideration, there was something fishy going on.

At ten that morning, one more came into view. It reached the tree and was walking circles around the trunk when one of the guards took it down. We got there just in time to see it drop. Sarah was now having a panic attack, as was the whole village. There was talk of abandoning the village, which was a terribly dumb thing to do. Sure, it wasn’t like the village had a wall, or any real defensible measures, but it was still in a very remote location. There was something else going on.

When three more showed up sometime around three that afternoon we decided it was time to figure out what the hell was going on...

A few things were clear. They were all coming from the same direction, up that southern road. They were also only coming a few at a time. This wasn’t a horde in the way that we had seen in the US, but there was a purpose behind their march. They were expending energy to get here, evidenced by their lethargy. Now, that worked in our favor, because it made them that much easier to kill.

Tague found twenty men who volunteered for guard duty. They quickly began work on fashioning spears, at least three per man. They would remain in ten man groups and take turns at night. We assumed that if all we got were a couple of stragglers at a time, we would be perfectly safe. And so it was for the rest of that day. Janine helped with the spears while Tague and I took turns with the groups, keeping a lookout on that southbound road.

I tried, with Sarah’s help, to explain to our volunteers the absolute necessity for staying together and not panicking. At around seven, just as the sun was starting to go down, three more zombies appeared along the road, and the men rushed out and quickly dispatched them. It was good to see. They needed that confidence. They would need it.

Just one hour later, Tague and I were on the road at the edge of the village when Blevin offered to take our place for a while. There was a shout somewhere behind us and we all turned to see another one coming up towards the village. The ten men quickly gathered their spears and were going out to meet the single walker when a whole crowd of zombies quickly came into view. Twenty five.

The men came to a stop and looked back towards us. Panic was apparent in their face. Tague went rushing back into town to get the other ten men. Blevin and I, ran out towards the ten men already out on the road. Neither of us could talk to them in any way, especially since Tague had run back into town. So we pointed and gesticulated and shouted a lot. I had to push them into place to form a good line. We got everyone out about halfway between the village and the two large trees and waited. Some of the men were mumbling, and one was visibly shaking. Twenty five undead was now bordering dangerous, even for twelve guys.

We waited.

And waited more. The small horde got to one of the big trees and just kind of stopped there. They appeared lost. I didn’t want to move my guys too much further from village. I needed them to have confidence that if they ran they would be in the village quickly. Problem was, the zombies were, for some reason, stuck at the tree. So I began shouting and screaming. Blevin picked up on what I was trying to do and started doing the same, pointing at the men and waving his hands to get them to do the same thing. They looked at each other like we were complete idiots, but started shouting too.

It didn’t take long. The zombies turned their focus away from whatever was distracting them there and came at our little makeshift line. If zombies ever were organized, and came at us at the same time, we’d be toast. Thankfully, it was like a kung fu movie, where the bad guys came at the main guy one at a time. The Haitians didn’t know this though. One guy, I’ll never have known his name, lost it. They were about fifteen feet from us when this guy started screaming and lunged out of the line towards the zombie closest to him. He hit the creature right through the neck, plunging the spear clear through it. His own weight carried him into the zombie and they both fell backwards into a whole bunch of them and they all collapsed on him in unison, tearing and biting. It took me a moment to realize what was going on. I couldn’t just rush forward or I’d be toast too. I shouted to Blevin to move the line, and he reached out with his arms and prodded the other guys forward. At that point, they were terrified, watching their fellow villager being torn by the zombies. Blevin grunted in anger and went barreling into the zombies, tackling them off the man. I continued shouting at the men to step forward and they finally started to, getting within distance to start spearing them. Problem was, they missed their heads most of the time. Spears would splinter and snap.

Then Blevin took over. He had dragged the first man, bleeding and barely alive, away from the zombies and came rushing back with a spear of his own. He stepped in the line right next to them, and as visibly and exaggeratedly as he could, he speared a zombie clear through the nose. It collapsed instantly and Blevin pulled the spear out, and repeated the move, killing the next one. Somehow, in all that mess, they got it. In a few minutes, all twenty five of the zombies were in a pile, and other than the first guy, everyone was ok.

Tague showed up sometime later with the other group, just as a few more came out from the woods along the dirt road. We took our guys back while Tague’s group moved up and did their thing. Thankfully, Sarah was there with a few other villagers and helped take the severely wounded man back into town. He looked a bloody mess.

That’s how it went the whole night. The largest group of zombies that came at us that night were ten, but it was steady. We took turns all throughout the night keeping the walkers out of the village, but by morning, we were a mess. A third group showed up, more volunteers, once they realized this was something everyone would have to be involved in. I’m glad they did too, because the first two little units were about done. No one had gotten seriously hurt that night, but once exhaustion set in, it was just a matter of time before a mistake was made. I remember just collapsing in the first two houses right there at the edge of the village. That way, if something happened, we would be right there.