Man Eaters (16 page)

“Dude. Sit down, and be quiet,” Roper ordered. “You’re giving me a headache.”

Cue-Ball remained standing. “I’m sorry. I just...I’ve never been so afraid in my life, and for my life to be in the hands of a bunch of women…well, quite frankly, it’s unnerving. ”

“Oh. I get it. You’d feel better if you were being led by someone with a dick?” Roper paused, looking over at Butcher, who shook her head in disgust. “Well, we’re all you’ve got, pal, so if you are going to keep whining about it, do us all a favor and be gone in the morning.”

“That’s not—”

“Oh, I get what you meant. All right. Well, let me tell you something. Dallas will keep us all alive a helluva lot longer than some macho guy who thinks he can outwit the brain dead. So if you don’t like the fact that this is a testosterone-free leadership, then take a hike.”

“I didn’t say I hated it. I just said I am not used to it. I’m from a generation of—”

“Sexists and bigots? I know. My father was just like you. So forgive me if I find your ways too archaic for my liking. Get used to it or get out.”

Butcher put her hands up. “Both of you need to ease up. As long as we don’t panic and stay on the same page we’ll be fine. That page, Cue-Ball, is written by Dallas. It’s not really up for discussion.”

Cue-Ball sat down, resting his stick in his lap. “But there is a plan, right?”

Roper sat across from them and explained about getting to the desert and going through the national park. When she finished, Cue-Ball continued voicing his concerns.

“By way of the Sequoia National Forest? Are you crazy?”

“That ranch back there should have demonstrated to you that being anywhere people are or have been is dangerous. Going through the forest on horseback will also keep us off the main roads...where the military will be. They’ll be shooting everyone who tries to cross the border, everyone who tries moving in the daylight, everyone who tries to get out of the country.”

“But that’s impossible. They can’t just keep killing us.”

“Apparently they can. If Einstein is right, the military will have to either find a way of shutting these things down or they’ll have to send wave after wave of planes over to shoot everything that moves.” Butcher heard a sound and rose, rifle at the ready.

“It was just Lance,” Roper explained.

Cue-Ball shook his head. “I still can’t believe you all are listening to a boy—a teenager who likens what we’re going through to movies and video games.”

“That kid hasn’t been wrong yet and who is as valuable to us as Dallas is.”

They sat in silence a minute before Butcher said she would take the first watch, leaving Roper and Cue-Ball sitting in a darkness touched by moonlight.

“I’m just not used to it. That’s all I’m saying. My wife…well…she’s the kinda lady who never had a job in her life. I always took good care of her and my boys.”

“So, you have a family.”

He nodded. “Wife and two boys back in Atlanta. I haven’t heard from them.”

“Is that your plan, then? To return to Atlanta?”

He looked down and nodded his head. “I know they were hit, too, but I have to see if they’re alive. I’ll go as far east as ya’ll take me but then I need to part ways and find my family.”

“We’re going to the desert. How are you planning to get further east?”

“Once I find a car, I’ll just take that and car-hop until I can get to Georgia.”

Roper leaned her back against the tree. He would never make it. The military would get him first, but she saw no need to disillusion him.

“What about you?” Cue asked.

“I’m gonna stay with Dallas and the kid indefinitely.”

“No family?”

“I do. In Houston, but I think it’s best to just stay alive and so far, those two have done a remarkable job at it.”

“You don’t care about your family?”

She shrugged. “More like the other way around. No, I’m staying with those two.”

“So they’re your family now?”

Roper stared down at her hands and nodded. “I guess they are, yes.”

Butcher came back from her rounds. “You guys, I don’t think that sound I’m hearing is coming from the horses.”

Roper grabbed her rifle and leapt to her feet to join Butcher. “What are you hearing?”            Butcher listened again. “I’m not sure. Something walking, breaking twigs. It’s probably just a deer, but—”

“You two go on. I’ll watch the horses.” Cue said.

The two women looked at each other through the darkness. “Stay with the horses then.”

Grabbing her flashlight, Roper handed it to Butcher, who cautiously walked across a small, dried up creek bed. “It’s coming from behind those rocks,” she whispered to Roper.

“I’ll go around that side,” Roper whispered, moving to the right side of an outcropping of rocks.

A low, guttural growl came from behind the rocks, stopping Roper cold. Rifle at the ready, she slowly started around the rock, when the growling resumed. Roper saw Butcher come around to the other side. The growling stopped.

“Easy boy,” Butcher said, shining the light on a Rottweiler.

“Don’t shoot him! He’s a good dog!”

Roper lowered her rifle at the sound of a little girl’s voice.

Kneeling down, Roper waited until Butcher shined the light on the child.

There stood a little blonde haired girl half hidden by a tree trunk. She could have been no more than eight or nine and was wearing filthy clothes and torn Ugg boots turned over on the top.

“Hi there,” Roper said softly, keeping her hand on the hilt of her Buck knife in case the dog attacked. “What’s your name?”

“Annie, but my family calls me Peanut.”

“And your dog?”

“Zeus.” She laid her little hand on the dog’s enormous head. “He’s my best friend.”

“Well, that’s quite a nice name.”

“Are you hurt or injured?” Butcher asked, also kneeling down.

Peanut shook her head. “Not really. My daddy sent me up here when those people started coming to the house.”

Zeus did not move, but stood with his big barrel chest protectively next to Peanut.

“How long have you been here?”

“Three days. Daddy said if no one came to get me after four days, I was supposed to find one of those big black cars and ask for help. Are you guys from those big black cars?”

“No, we’re—”

“Yes,” Roper interrupted Butcher. “But we’re on horses for now until we can get back to the...big black car.”

“Horses? We had horses. Daddy let them go.”

“Is your house nearby?”

She pointed. “It’s that way. Daddy told me to come to the Three Stooges. That’s what he calls these rocks.”

“Are you hungry? Thirsty?”

“I’m a little thirsty. I finished my water yesterday.” She pointed to an enormous military backpack. “Daddy packed my bag for me. He told me to make it last.”

“And you did, didn’t you?” Roper forced a smile she did not feel.

Peanut blushed slightly. “I tried, but I had to share it with Zeus. He’s always hungry.”

“Well, you want to come with us now?”

She thought about it for a second. “I better not. He told me to wait here.”

Roper looked at Butcher for help.

“Maybe we should take you someplace nicer where your dad might find you. Would you like that?”

She blinked. “Zeus is very hungry. I’ve shared my food, but I think he wants his dog food.”

Roper rose and dusted off her pants. “Peanut, do you...do you know what is happening?”

“Well…those people are monsters. Daddy said something was making people into monsters. But you’re not, right? You don’t act like those other monsters.”

“No, hon, we’re not, but I...we think you might want to come with us.”

“Home?”

Roper glanced over at Butcher and could see her shaking her head.

“If we leave a note here for your daddy to find you, you could come with us. Is Zeus friendly with horses?”

“He loves them! So do I!”

“What do you say then? Come with us?”

Peanut reached for her backpack. “Yes, please. I...” Then the false bravado evaporated and she erupted into tears.

Roper hugged her as she cried with Zeus right at her side. “Come with us, hon. You’re okay now. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”

After leaving a note scribbled on the back of one of Peanut’s coloring pages, telling her father they were heading to Nevada, they returned to the horses to find Cue fast asleep.

“Gee, glad we didn’t worry him.” Butcher said, shining the light in his face before kicking him with her boot. “Wake up.”

Roper set her sleeping bag down and patted it. Zeus plopped down right in the middle of it. “You can ride with us tomorrow, Peanut, but for now, why don’t you crawl into this sleeping bag and get some rest?”

She and Zeus were quietly snoring two minutes later.

When Roper went to check on the horses, Butcher was right behind her.

“We made the right choice, you know? We can’t become so hard-hearted we’d leave a child behind.”

“Poor thing. She must have been scared to death up here all alone.”

“That beast of a dog would protect her.”

Roper pulled a brush out of the saddlebag and began brushing Merlin. “I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her up here…waiting.”

“Well, the good news is we found her. She’s safe.”

Petting Merlin’s soft muzzle, Roper looked up at the moon. “Still...the kid’s right about numbers. It’s just going to be harder to move this many people. We need more horses, more bedding...”

“We can get some along the way.” Butcher moved closer and pet Merlin’s flank.

“And food?”

Butcher leaned closer and whispered, “What’s really bothering you? It can’t be that we just saved a little girl and her dog. That should make you feel way better. So, what’s going on?”

Roper hesitated a moment before whispering, “I don’t trust him. I don’t trust Tate or Coco. They’re all out for themselves and that could be problematic down the road. I’d lay my life down for you three and I trust you’d do the same. But those others? I don’t trust. Without trust, we’re in trouble.”

Putting an arm around Roper and pulling her into a hug, Butcher whispered. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, honey, but we’re already in trouble.”

****

Dallas

There was only one exit for Las Positas, so when Dallas saw it, she stopped, spray painted a big “D” on it, and drove into town...or what may have once passed for a town. It had a gas station, a country store, a diner, three bars, and several churches all in need of repairs and a new paint job. It was one of those little towns where people either spent the majority of their time in church or at the bar, sometimes both.

The main street, all one hundred yards of it, looked like a battle zone. Dead, half-eaten bodies littered the bloody pavement. Windows of most of the bar fronts were broken out or shot out and several farm animals freely roamed the sidewalks in search of food.

“Jesus Christ, what happened here?” Tate asked no one in particular.

“I imagine the same thing that’s happening all across the country,” Einstein replied caustically. There was no love lost between the geek and the weed smoker.

“Where are we staying?” Tate asked, a slight panic to his question. “We can’t stay here. You know them things are everywhere.”

“Not here. I just want to see if we can gas up here.”

“Gas? Again? We haven’t gone that far. I vote we skip it and move on.”

Einstein looked over his shoulder. “This is an older model Hummer that probably has a twenty-five gallon tank. If we get ten miles to the gallon, we only go about two-thirty before we get into trouble.”

“And I don’t care to get into trouble,” Dallas added.

“How far have we gone tonight?”

Dallas looked down at her odometer. “Fifty-two. It took longer than I thought, but Roper and them will cut that in half since they will be riding in a straight line.” Turning around and heading back to the freeway, Dallas explained, “I don’t want to pump gas in the dark, if they even have any.”

Coco made a derisive puffing sound. “We’re sardines back here.”

“Then I ask again, where are we staying?” Tate held Coco’s hand.

“We’ll just have to sleep in the car tonight. It’s a helluva lot safer than trying to find a safe place at night.”

“Seriously?” This came from Coco. “Feels like we’ve been in this all damn day.”

Dallas cut her eyes over to Einstein, who rolled his. “Yeah. Seriously. Remember, every day there will be thousands more of those monsters. Avoiding towns at all cost is the best strategy.”

Dallas slowed down, looking closely at another ranch style house on the frontage road that had a horseshoe driveway and a carport in the middle. The house’s exterior had seen better days and it looked as though it might have been abandoned before the outbreak, when the housing crisis rolled over the country. There was no sign of life…or death.

“Wouldn’t we be safer just parking on the freeway?” Tate asked.

“We would until a chopper saw the Hummer and tried to communicate with us.” Dallas looked around the car interior. “Einstein will take the first watch. We’ll go three hours each. You see or hear anything, wake me up and I’ll DD outta here, no questions asked. We do not want either the living or the dead all up on us, so please stay awake during your watch.”

After verbally handing out a watch schedule, Dallas closed her eyes. She hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since this whole thing started. If only she could just sleep for a—

That’s when she heard it: The familiar sound of a shotgun being racked.

“Don’t do anything,” Einstein whispered. “They’ve got five rifles aimed at us.”

Suddenly, a huge spotlight shined on the Hummer, illuminating the five figures standing with rifles raised and pointed directly at Dallas.

“Put your hands on the roof or you’re dead,” a man’s voice ordered.

Dallas looked at the keys, then at Einstein, and knew she could never take that risk. Einstein would be dead before she could mow them over.

Slowly, Dallas raised her hands to the roof. The others followed suit.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I told you this was a shitty place to park!” cried Tate. “Now what?”