Slow Burn: A Zombie Novel (34 page)

Councilman Lewis’ face began to turn red from anger. “I had very good reasons for why I voted how I did.” He looked around and chuckled to his guards. “Besides,” he said, “it’s not like you cops helped out when this epidemic started. When I called 911, nobody showed up at my house, and I’m a city leader for Christ’s sake.”

The guards all began to laugh.

Dan walked up to the Councilman and leaned forward with a scowl on his face. “We all lost a lot of friends and loved ones to this crisis, scumbag. So shut your mouth before I do it for you. As far as taking my weapons, you see, I love them like they were family.” Dan’s scowl was making his facial scar turn white and twist as if it was a snake. “Now if some deranged idiot was to try and take a family member of mine…well I’m not sure what I would do.”

I wasn’t positive if it was his pretty speech or the fact that Dan actually kissed his home built AR-15 while staring Councilman Lewis in the eye the entire time, but Lewis took a step back, clearly rattled.

Mattie, who had been quiet this entire time, now spoke up. “Sir, we are here to help,” she said in a calm voice. “Now I’m sure some sort of compromise can be reached.”

“
Yes, yes we can most definitely reach a compromise. Guards, put these people on perimeter duty as soon as possible,” Lewis stated and didn’t wait around for a reply.

He spun around and stalked away in anger with the sound of the newcomers chuckling at his retreating back.

* * * * * * * *

Councilman Lewis opened the door to the office that functioned as the safe zone command center. Slamming the door, he walked to his desk and sat down. From inside a desk drawer he pulled out a bottle of bourbon that he had acquired from a recent seizure for “redistribution”. He poured himself a shot.

“
Who do those clowns think they are?” he said aloud to the empty office.

They did not seem impressed one bit by all that he had done here. Well that just showed what kind of imbeciles they were.

I’ve almost won election for mayor three times!

Throwing down another shot, he felt his anger rise.

However, this epidemic was the best thing to ever happen to his career. The sickness had killed every councilman and the mayor, which by default made him top dog in this city. Without anyone to say otherwise, his word was basically law in this crisis. That had held true until those five assholes had showed up today. Lewis was so mad that it was a few moments before he realized his hands hurt. Looking down, he saw that he was gripping the bottle of bourbon so hard he was surprised that the bottle hadn’t broken. Taking several deep breaths, he reined in his rage and set the bottle onto the desk.

He hadn’t been that angry in years. Not since his mother had committed suicide.

That was also the fault of law enforcement. They were the ones who had arrested Charlie Kettle, his half-brother, who was charged with over two dozen rapes, and those were just the ones they thought they could prove. He was sure there were a lot of back room deals being cut with those tramps, who were probably all seeing dollar signs.

The ensuing trial, with all those vindictive whores’ testimonies, broke their mother’s heart. In a bout of depression, she had killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills.

Lewis threw down another shot of liquid courage.

Steaming mad now, he recalled how he was unable to return home for the trial to comfort her. He had been out in California at the time, in college at Berkley.

And poor Charlie
… he thought.
All of those years in prison
.

Sure, he had a problem, but he hadn’t tortured animals in years, and all those women he supposedly sexually assaulted, well they were all in it for the money. The resulting lawsuit had paid out millions and bankrupted the church his brother had created and preached at. Since being incarcerated, Charlie was moved from one maximum security prison to another for several years, until ultimately stopping at Statesville Correctional Facility, just outside of Joliet. Lewis could never visit him either. It would devastate his political career if anyone found out he was related to Charlie. The story had been plastered all over the news for months. Only the fact that they shared the same mother but had different fathers, and thus had different last names, kept anyone from knowing they shared blood.

Now he would probably never know if his brother was alive or dead from this virus.

“
And that jackass cop wonders why I voted against the police!” he snarled to the empty room.

Downing yet another shot, he coughed and poured another just as fast. Most of the people inside his safe zone here were just like sheep. Tell them to do something and they did it. They liked having someone making their decisions for them and were happy as long as they were warm and well fed.

But this new group needed watching. He could sense it.

Walking over to the office window, Lewis cracked the blinds and peered out at the new group. They appeared to be gathering gear for a shift at perimeter duty. The big bald guy…Mike was his name? He was stacking some gear next to the ambulance. Lewis saw a piece of gear that made his blood pressure soar. A ballistic shield with big white lettering that stated POLICE.

“
Fucking cops,” Lewis muttered under his breath. “Yes they most definitely need to be watched.”

The next guard we met shook my hand, telling me his name was Jack. He told me he was in charge of the perimeter detail. I had Jack give me a tour of the security measures for the perimeter while the rest unloaded whatever gear they might need. There was some shooting coming from the two southern corners of the safe zone, and we were sure to see some action soon. In the meantime, Stephen said he wanted to go over and see who was at the mobile command center that belonged to the department. We agreed on a parking spot for our three vehicles and decided to meet back up at this location in two hours. That would give Mattie time to go check on Holly and Vanessa as well.

Walking with Jack, I learned that the perimeter basically was indeed a line of stacked vehicles and semi flatbed trailers. At least they were adding to it, I saw, as a few men drove a large front end loader up to the wall and stacked new vehicles on top of the lower layers which they had previously flattened. Other than the wall, they had very few actual armed guards providing protection for the people inside. I saw a few on the roof of the school, but I wondered what good they would do from there. I pointed out that fact to Jack as we walked the perimeter.

“
Yes, I do know that we’re way undermanned,” Jack replied, “but the Councilman refuses to arm the majority of people here because he doesn’t think that several hundred armed guys will all follow his orders. We’ve got about eighty to a hundred armed guards as of now. But we’re running three shifts, so they don’t go far.”

“
But you’ll never survive a concentrated assault if you had to,” I told him. “This place is too large. Everyone should be trained and armed.”

“
You’re preaching to the choir, my friend,” he said tiredly. “Look, I used to be a manager at Best Buy. I never even shot a gun up until a week ago. I just happened to be one of the first guys to show up. Now I’m in charge of perimeter security and am in way over my head.”

“
Relax, bro. If we can help out, we will,” I assured him. “We have a few guys in my group, including myself, with prior military experience, and we are all police officers as well.”

“
I’ll gladly take any help or advice you got to give. Hell, you can have my job if you want it,” Jack offered.

“
I’ll pass on that offer, friend,” I replied with a pat on the back. “After this afternoon’s run-in with that dork who is in charge, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

Jack chuckled at my comment and proceeded to show me the rest of the safe zone. The shooting was closer now, and Jack pointed at the southwest corner, where several men could be seen firing from raised bleachers, which had been moved from the football stadium.

“
We use loudspeakers to draw the infected towards our strong points in the two southern corners,” he explained, “and put our best shooters there. It mostly keeps the infected away from our gate and wall, which is still being finished.”

“
Now that’s a good idea,” I said while giving him a pat on the back. “Did you come up with that?”

“
Yeah, I did,” Jack replied. “And it’s been about the only idea that I have had that Lewis liked.”

“
Well, there’s going to be a lot more zombies coming, and soon I think.” As I said this, Jack looked at me with a funny expression. “Yep you heard me, zombies. That’s what we’re calling them.”

Jack chuckled at that. I next gave him my first impressions and ideas on what he could do to make the safe zone more secure. Pointing to the vehicle barrier, I told him what it needed.

“
First we need more manpower patrolling the wall. Maybe we have them standing on raised platforms that could span out over the entire length.”

Then turning and looking at all the refugees relaxing, I told him my thoughts. “All these folks fucking off is completely unacceptable. We need to train and arm all the people sitting on their asses and order them to pull their weight or get their stuff and leave.”

Jack just shook his head and took in what I said.

“
And maybe set up shorter six or seven hour shifts,” I brought up next. “When people get tired they make mistakes. And there needs to be at least two bodies in each patrol group. No one works alone.”

We walked the entire perimeter and shook the hands of the few guards we came across. I pointed out weak spots in the wall and talked of the need to really strengthen the entire perimeter, and suggested where to set up the guard towers.

“
Where are all of the weapons and ammunition stored?” I asked. “And how are you set for generators and fuel? Power to run lights and electronic equipment is going to be a game changer for this place in the long haul. Who knows how long until all this blows over.”

“
Lewis keeps a tight lid on the weapons, but I’ll look into it,” Jack promised. “And I’m not sure on the fuel situation. I’ll check on that as well.”

“
Okay,” I replied as we walked back to my ambulance. “Let me know.”

Jack shook my hand and promised to get it done pronto and left to see to it.

The others had arrived before me by the time I got back to the ambulance, and Chris was the first to ask me how it went.

“
The guard in charge, Jack, is a good guy,” I answered. “He is just in way over his head under the current circumstances. Some changes need to be made quickly, but I think we have some time.”

“
I ran into Adam,” Stephen next told me. “He had quite the story of how he drove the command center here after it was designated a safe zone. He met with that major from the National Guard and helped get the place organized. He is not getting along at all with Lewis and mostly stays to himself in the command center. He said he would be more than willing to help with a raid.”

Adam was a fellow police officer that had been hired on at the department the same time as me.

“
I can’t believe Adam made it here,” I replied with a laugh. “I’ll have to say hi to the big guy later. And what did you find out, Mattie?”

“
Holly and Vanessa are doing fine,” she replied. “They both just wish they had more privacy. I told them I would try and help figure something out.”

Chris and Dan talked of how they checked on the cafeteria and food situation. There seemed to be plenty of food for now, but the cooks were way over serving, and it looked more like a buffet in there. They didn’t know how long the food would last if Lewis kept up with his “keep the masses fat and happy” strategy.

“
He’s definitely using food as a means of power,” Dan said. “I think that’s why he doesn’t want people going out and getting their own.”

“
And one whole wing of the school seems to be off limits,” Chris added. “I think he keeps a lot of the stuff the military dropped off back there under guard.”

Stephen filled us in on the news that a few guys from the police force were indeed here at the safe zone. The guys that were here, however, were the coward types. The type you could not depend on when your back was against the wall. Every department had them. It seemed that the day it all started to break loose, these guys were in the police station doing nothing or hiding while fellow officers were dying.

I didn’t hide my displeasure at hearing this bit of news.

“
That’s who Lewis probably uses to keep all the supplies securely under lock and key,” I growled. “Jack, the guy who Lewis actually has protecting the place, seems out of the loop.”

“
We have some stuff to work out, that’s for sure,” Stephen responded. “It’s getting to be about dinner time now. Why don’t we grab some food, pull some guard duty to help out, and then get some rest.”