The Plague Years (Book 1): Hell is Empty and All the Devils Are Here (34 page)

“Hey Danny,” shouted Connor. “Stay right where you are. Uncle Dave, don’t shoot him, please!”

“I hadn’t planned to, Connor,” said Dave. “Why don’t you come down here and see if we can talk to your friend.”

Connor safed his rifle and then slid down the ladder in back. He made world record time getting around the front. He pushed his way through the crowd and stopped short. It was Danny alright, the scraggily beard and the face tattoo couldn’t hide the boyish face of his friend. He also had a couple of visible lesions. He was obviously infected. People were standing around, not getting too close but still very curious and scared.

“Hey, Connor,” said Danny shakily. “Just like old times.”

“You know this guy?” asked Chris.

“Yeah,” said Connor a little gobsmacked. “We went to school together and stuff.”

He looked his old friend over, taking in the biker colors, the general lack of hygiene, and the abundance of tattoos. It looked like his friend and at the same time looked like a complete stranger.

“What the hell are you doing in a biker gang Danny?” said Connor after an embarrassingly long pause.

“Man, I don’t know,” said Danny shaking his head. He pushed up into a sitting position and was holding his head with hands, resting on his legs.

“High school sucked, ya know? So I dropped out. The real world sucks too, but people quit beating on me when I joined the gang.”

“So what were you doing riding down our street?” said Chad a little more gently. He remembered Danny too, and had always felt a little sorry for him.

“Look, if I don’t tell you, you’ll kill me,” said Danny with a panicky voice, “But if I tell you Kevin will kill me. I am so fucked no matter what I do.”

“You’ve got the Plague,” said Amy who had come out from the house. She was now standing close to Connor and the two young people were holding hands.

“I remember you,” said Danny gazing at Amy. “I thought you were the prettiest girl in the world in junior high. You would even talk to me when I was hanging around with Connor. Geez, what should I do?”

“I can see the lesions,” persisted Amy. “You’ve got it.”

“Yeah, I have had it for a while now,” said Danny looking down, “but the Slash keeps it cool, and as long as I stay in the gang and do what they tell me, I get enough to keep it under control. If I don’t get some tonight, I’ll start to lose it, ya know? I’ll go crazy and start biting people and shit. You have to let me go!”

“Where do you get the Slash?” said Chris quietly.

“You’re a cop, ain’t ya?” said Danny pointing a finger at Chris. “I know the fake friendly voice and the little questions that turn into big questions. I ain’t got nothin’ to say to you.”

“Danny, what were you doing here?” said Chad more forcefully. “It wasn’t just for old home week.”

“Look, please just let me go Mr. Strickland,” said Danny pleadingly looking at Chad. “I promise you won’t see me again ever. If I don’t go back, that fed will cut me off, I’ll get the zombie disease and you don’t want that, do ya?”

“Who is the ‘Fed’ Danny?” asked Chris.

“I don’t know his name,” said Danny. “They just call him the ‘Fed’. He showed up with a truck load of Slash and guns. He kinda runs things ya know?”

“So is that were you get the Slash?” asked Chris.

“You’re doing it to me aren’t ya? You fuckin pig! Well, I am done talking to anybody. I want a lawyer.”

“Danny, there might be a lawyer or two in the crowd here, but we aren’t calling the police,” said Connor getting a little angry now. “The guy who keeps asking you the questions is my … ‘cousin’ … Chris.

“But look at the pile of bodies at the end of the street Danny, look at them! There are no cops and there is no jail. If you don’t tell my folks stuff, important stuff, you’ll be on that pile with all your other friends. I don’t want to see you shot, but it’s not like I am in charge around here or anything. The best chance you got to walk away from this is to tell us everything you know.”

“Connor is talking sense,” said Chad. “Why were you here?”

“Look it was Kevin see,” said Danny. “He sent me here.”

“Who’s Kevin?” asked Chris a little more forcefully.

“Shit, I am so dead,” wailed Danny. “Look, its Kevin Erwin see, the football player. He was a RUB, before … well before.”

“What’s a RUB?” asked Chad perplexed.

“Rich Urban Biker,” said Chris, “guys that pretend to be badass bikers but really are lawyers or dentists, or in this case, a pro football player.”

“Yeah, like that,” said Danny pointing a Chris. “He thought that the ‘Fed’ was taking too much Slash and not thinking too good. He wanted someone to go have a look at what you guys are doing. He said the girls would like it if I did.”

“Son,” said Chris calmly. “You know he was using you don’t you?”

“You think so?” asked Danny looking like the scared teenager he really was under all the bravado.

“He was playing you like a violin,” said Chris. “I‘ve heard of this Erwin character. He is huge and was a pretty good lineman, but he is also a PR nightmare for the ‘hawks. He slapped his girlfriends around and he failed more than one drug test. Word was he was on the way out.”

“It ain’t the way he tells it,” said Danny defensively, “But he isn’t a nice guy. You should see what he does to women; and they just line up for it. I don’t get it.”

“So what did he want you to do?” asked Chris.

“Just see how you had prepared is all. You know, see if there was there a lookout or did you have lots of guns? He figured to spring in on the ‘Fed’. Show him up ya know?”

“I can see it,” said Chris, “you think he wants to run the operation then?”

“I dunno, probably,” said Danny.

“So who is the ‘Fed’,” asked Chris.

“Look, I never seen him before, but I heard Kevin call him Macky or, or, Max or something like that.”

“It wouldn’t be Macklin would it?” asked Chris innocently.

“Yeah, that’s it!” said Danny brightening, “Macklin. You know him?”

“Sadly, I do,” said Chad.

“Are they going to hit us again?” asked Amy nervously.

“Macklin is pushing them to do it tomorrow,” said Danny, “but if it is tomorrow, it will be late. The guys, especially those strung out on Slash, sleep late, like one o’clock and then party till dawn. Those are the only ones who he can get to go; those guys who are desperate for their fix.”

“Well that explains why these bikers aren’t so tough, don’t shoot straight, and do all kinds of dumb but aggressive tactics. They are probably all high,” said Dave.

“Anything else, Danny?” asked Chris.

“They got this big truck thing,” said Danny. “It looks like a tank on wheels; and they robbed some guy who collected old guns and got some sort of World War Two machine gun like from the old movies. They were putting that in the top when I left.”

“Thanks Danny,” said Chris. “Now what are we going to do with you?”

“You can’t shoot him!” said Connor with some heat. “He gave you all the information you wanted.”

“There is that,” said Chris.

“Look, Danny has done some dumb stuff,” said Connor, “but he is still just Danny Bury, the little kid down the block who all the knuckleheads in junior high school used to pick on.”

While he was talking, Connor glanced down at his old friend. There were tears running down his face. Connor could see that it was all Danny could to keep from crying out loud. The tough biker was gone, at least momentarily. Sitting there, surrounded by fifty or more hostile armed adults and at least that many curious kids, he looked like the scared seventeen year old he really was.

“Yes, Connor,” said Dave kindly, “it was dumb, but it’s now kind of up to him what happens next. If we let him go, he might go blab everything he saw here to Macklin and his clowns.”

“I won’t!” said Danny who was really scared. “I won’t a say a word!”

“I actually believe you, son,” said Dave. “But that will be an even bigger give away. You go back and say nothing, your friends will guess in a minute that something is up then all they have to do is withhold the Slash and wait for you to panic. I don’t know where to get Slash for you, otherwise, we would keep you here for a couple of days until Macklin did whatever he was going to do and then let you go.”

Chris looked at Dave with a question in his eyes. He knew that they were going to hit the road just as soon as they could. Then Dave gave him the barest hint of a wink. An idea blossomed in his head and Chris nodded.

“What we need is to give you some believable story,” said Dave with a smile. “That way, you could go back and tell Macklin and Kevin something, stick to your story. No one will ever find out because we certainly won’t tell.”

“Anything man,” said Danny. “I’ll tell them anything you say.”

“That’s not good enough,” said Dave. “You have to believe it son. They are going to ask pretty hard questions. You better have good answers for them.”

“Just tell me man,” said Danny as the desperation crept into his voice. “I’ll say anything.”

“Well like I said,” Dave went on in a friendly tone, “we are bunkering up here. If things get really bad, we may light out for Fort Lewis, but you need to tell them that it’s like a Saturday before the plague you know? People are still mowing lawns, there was a block party going on. There is a problem though.”

“What is it?” said Danny worriedly.

“You’ve been gone too long and it’s getting longer while we talk,” said Dave as he walked over to the Harley. It was an older bike, a classic Harley chopper, with lots of chrome. Danny had obviously taken good care of it. Dave killed the ignition as it had been idling and the back wheel was spinning slowly ever since Danny fell off.

“So here is the story son,” said Dave. “You tell them that some yahoo with a pistol came out and shot at you and hit the bike. They will believe that because they have been shot up a couple of times here already.”

Dave checked to make sure no one was in the line of fire, walked back about twenty feet, and then drew his .44 mag.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing old man?” shouted Danny as he watched Dave take aim on the bike and then he tried to stand. Chris’s shotgun appeared out of nowhere and the act staring down the barrel of a twelve gauge settled him right back to the ground.

“I am giving you a believable story,” said Dave as he fired twice.

BLAM! And the headlight shattered into a thousand pieces, the slug ricocheted and took out one of the mirrors for good measure.

BLAM! And the fixture that connected the tank to the fuel line was gone along with a sizeable chunk of the fuel tank before the slug burrowed into the turf under the bike.

Then with a grunt, Dave stood the bike up, being careful to avoid the cascade of gasoline from the damaged tank and popped the kick stand down and then let the gas run out.

“So here is your story,” said Dave holstering the .44. He grabbed a rag from his back pocket and soaked up some of the gas. “This yahoo fired a couple of times at you from the front. He missed your squishy parts but hit the bike a couple of times. You rode it until the gas gave out and then walked it back.”

Dave walked back to where Danny was lying and threw the sodden rag in his lap.

“Wipe the leathers around your crotch so they will believe that the gas got dumped.”

“Man, I will take me hours to push my bike downtown to Roban’s,” said Danny with a thunderstruck look in his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s about what I figure,” said Dave with a smile that did not go all the way to his eyes. “I figure it will be dark when you push it pack, too late for them to attack today. You will be hot, tired, sweaty, and smelling of gas. You will have had hours to rehearse your story so you can tell it with just the right amount of fear in your voice, because, if you get wrong, you know what they will do, don’t you Danny?”

June 1
st
, Monday, 8:37 pm PDT.

Kevin was still sweaty and a little disoriented from having sex with one of the girls that clustered around him. It was like the old days in the NFL, when the girls just threw themselves at him. Some came to say they had an NFL player. Some came to bask for a little while in the limelight that surrounded professional athletes, and some were just plain crazy. It hadn’t mattered then. He just used them and went on to the next.

These girls were different. There was a frantic drive behind their passion, probably because they knew that the Slash that they got from Kevin and the rest of the bikers who hung out around Roban’s was the only thing keeping them from a slow and twisted death. Kevin liked it even better this way.

“Hey Kevin,” shouted the guy outside of his door. “The Rugrat is finally back. He’s laying down some cock and bull story about some fuckin’ Marine shooting up his bike and all. What do ya want me to do?”

“Bring him up here,” said Kevin with a groan. “I’ll talk to him.”

Kevin then looked at the girl in his bed. She may have been sixteen, but she was infected, like all of them, and needed the Slash.

“Beat it, I got some business to attend to,” said Kevin as pointed toward the door.

The girl started to grab for clothes and began dressing.

“I said, got business to attend to bitch,” said Kevin as he grabbed her by the ankle picked her up effortlessly off the bed with one hand, and with the other he opened the door. She was nearly naked and the vise like grip on her leg had to hurt but she knew better than to scream. Kevin pitched her out of the door. Looking around the room, he gathered and threw some clothes at her that may or may not have been hers. Kevin wasn’t much of a housekeeper.

“Dress in the hall or go to the bar, but get out,” said Kevin as he slammed the door. Kevin then got dressed himself in his leathers, wearing only a vest to show off his muscles.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” said Kevin when Danny was thrust into the room. “I sent you to take a little ride, be gone maybe an hour, and then you show up three hours later smelling of gas with a busted bike. What the hell happened?”

“Kevin, it was like this,” said Danny talking very fast, “I rode around a bit like you said, but there is nothing moving on the streets these days. Everywhere I went, people were looking at me and pointing guns so I decided to make one fast pass down the street to look it over. In might have worked, only there was this old guy with a big ole cowboy pistol, chomping a cigar and wearing a Marine boony hat. He stood right in the middle of the street, shooting at me. He didn’t get me but he shot the shit out of my bike. I rode for maybe four blocks before I ran out of gas. Then I pushed the beast the rest of the way here.”

“So I suppose in all the excitement,” said Kevin sarcastically, “you forgot to look at what I sent you for?”

“No no, I mean I did look pretty good until this dude started shooting,” said Danny quickly.

“Well why don’t you tell me then, fucktard,” said Kevin, “rather than make me guess!”

“Well, it was almost like before the Plague,” said Danny. “People were out mowing lawns and there was a block party going on. There were a lot of kids around and …”

“I send you there to get a look at the defenses,” said Kevin looking exasperated, “you know, find out something we can use! Instead I get a travel log for fucking middle America. What kind of defenses do they have you idiot? Did you see anything like, oh, you know, guns or bunkers? Tell me something useful or I’ll get bored with this discussion and put you in the cage for a while to see if you can remember a little more.”

“Geez no, not the cage …” said Danny. He knew that when Kevin or Macklin didn’t think people were fully cooperating, they would throw them in a ten by ten cage, usually with a couple of other infectees and withhold the Slash; letting the neurosis set in. People would come to watch them fight and try to eat each other.

“Then get on with it,” said Kevin. “I ain’t got all day!”

“OK, ok, most everybody was packing, mostly pistols but some shotguns and rifles too. There was some guys on a couple of the roofs, you know with rifles … and there was some plywood and shit over the front of some of the houses.”

“Did it look like anybody was leaving or pulling out?”

“No, they said they was bunkering up.”

“And just when did you have the chance to chat with them?” said Kevin leaning back in his chair smiling. “Was that before or after that marine dude was shooting at you? I think you are hiding something.”

“No, I mean, yes, look, they said they were bunkering up, then then said they were heading out to Ft Lewis, but I don’t remember …”

“Kyle, Jamie, get in here and drag this piece of garbage out of here. Maybe a night in the cage will help him remember.”

The two big bikers opened the door and grabbed Danny, pinning his arms and lifted him high enough that his feet didn’t touch the ground.

“Nooooooooo!” screamed Danny as they hauled him frantically struggling out of the room.

Kevin took a minute to pour himself a drink and thought, “what could he be hiding? Did the little shit have a girlfriend there or something?”

Then he snorted, “Not likely, he couldn’t get it on if he paid for it.”

He was still thinking about it when Kyle stuck his head in the door.

“Hey Kevin, are you sure about this?” said Kyle. “That big biker Gangrene is in there. He will likely fuck him first and then eat him.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Kevin with a smile. “Meet me there in a couple of hours with some beers. I figure it will take that long for Gangrene to wake up and the Rugrat’s last fix to wear off. This should be a kick to watch.”

June 2
nd
, Monday, 2:14 am PDT.

Chad was sitting on last time on his patio, with his guitar, playing the blues. He had started out playing for himself because he thought everyone else save the neighbors who offered to stand watch for them were in bed. He had closed his eyes, working on a riff and when he had opened them, his friend Dave was they holding out a beer.

“I do recall a wise man saying you should never turn down hot coffee or a cold beer,” said Chad setting aside the guitar and reaching for the beer. “It’s been a hell of a day.”

“Yeah, but it could have been worse,” said Dave sitting down and opening his own beer. “We are packed up and ready to roll at first light. There are any number of improvised explosives in and around our two places and the neighbors are planting more all around the neighborhood even as we speak. If Macklin and his stooges roll in tomorrow afternoon like Danny said they would, the MRAP will probably make it out just fine but I don’t think they can get into and out of the buildings unless the ram them with the MRAP. If they do that, it will likely get stuck and burn so either way it’s a win.”

“Yeah, except it’s my house,” said Chad morosely. “It was the first house I ever owned and it’s where I raised my kids. I’d hate to see it burned, unless of course Macklin was in the MRAP.”

“You know, a house is just stuff,” said Dave. “And I know, stuff is nice to have, but if you can’t pack up what is important and leave, you don’t own the stuff, the stuff owns you.”

“I heard that too,” said Chad. “I just never thought I would live it. I am also sad about Danny. He was a nice kid when he was younger. He was always a little clueless, but a nice kid. I wonder if Connor knows that we sent him in to plant misinformation.”

“We didn’t send him anywhere,” said Dave. “He made some bad choices and when the feces hit the air circulation device, he was out of options but, we didn’t send him, he went on his own.”

“Connor knows,” said Connor from the kitchen window surprising both the older men. “I wasn’t eavesdropping or anything. I couldn’t sleep and I came down to see if there was any of that bread left. I heard dad playing and stopped to listen for a while. But I know what happened out there.”

“Why don’t you come and sit with us for a minute,” said Dave. “This maybe needs some talking out.”

“You know, the Danny we saw today wasn’t really the Danny you knew in junior high,” said Chad.

“Dad, we don’t have to have one of ‘those talks’ ok?” said Connor shaking his head as he came through the screen door and sat down in the lawn chair next to his father.

“I saw what Uncle Dave was doing. I didn’t like it, but I knew that it was the best of several bad options.

“Danny was always a bit of a victim. When he was in the sixth grade, his dad used to beat on him. After him begging me not to for almost a year, I told Mom and well, you know Mom and kids. She called the cops, Child Protective Services, the PTA, and probably the Marines too. We let Danny stay here for a few days until things settled down. There was a restraining order, and then his folks separated, and finally divorced. He thought I was a hero for getting the beatings to stop.

“Then I was a hero again in the seventh grade because after I hit my growth spurt, I could look most of the bullies in the eye and get them to back down when the year before, I was just a little kid like him.

“Through it all, there was Danny, blaming the world that everything was happening to him, sometimes blaming me for not being there all the time, blaming his dad and his mom for not staying together, sometimes blaming them for not divorcing sooner. I never said this before, but when he moved, I was relieved.”

“Connor, you don’t have to say this …”

“Yeah, I do, dad. What I am saying is that seeing Danny today confirmed what I thought in the back of my head all along. Danny was an attention hog and frankly, a loser. I couldn’t see anyway for him to, you know, grow up and be something. I am sad we saw Danny today and sad that he is probably going to get thumped on again but he brings it on himself. Is that a bad thing to say?”

“I don’t know about ‘bad’ Connor,” said Dave, “but truthful anyway. I don’t want to gloss over this as Danny will likely die soon. If the Plague doesn’t get him, his associates will, but it’s not your fault. You can’t ‘save’ anyone who doesn’t want to be saved. It sounds like you were everything a good friend should be. Danny chose. Maybe because he wasn’t strong enough to change, but he thought people ought to take care of him. It’s always a bad answer. Sometime you let your friends help you, but they don’t owe you.

“But we had all probably better head to bed. We are leaving in the morning and even though it should be a short day, anything could happen. Hitting it on too little sleep will make for bad decisions.”

June 2
nd
, Monday, 3:42 am PDT.

Kevin was sitting on a lawn chair in front of the cage, beer in hand. He had watched Danny slowly devolve from sane and scared to psychotic and scared. Gangrene had been one of the first guys locally to come down with the Plague and now he needed a huge hit of Slash three or four times a day to keep his stuff together. He was high on Slash almost continually, so mostly he slept. But when they let him wake up, things got interesting. Gangrene was almost as big as Kevin, though of differing composition. He was still very much stronger than most and even more intimidating. Danny had begged to get out of the cage when Gangrene was sleeping and then became quiet and still as a stone when he woke up.

While the Slash still had some say in his system, Gangrene tried to convince Kevin that he should let him out. Kevin laughed and Gangrene became angry. There was only one outlet for his anger and so poor Danny had been beaten and then brutally sodomized. When Gangrene started biting him, they gave them both Slash. Gangrene got enough to stop a horse, but Danny got just enough to check his symptoms for a while. When Gangrene stopped moving they hauled a beaten, naked Danny out of the cage and left him in a heap in front of Kevin’s chair.

“That Gangrene,” said Danny weakly, “he hurt me.”

“You gonna tell me the truth now you little shit?” said Kevin relaxing in is chair, “or do we wait for Gangrene to wake up for a second round? What the fuck really happened while you were gone?”

“Kevin, I was riding out there just like I said,” said Danny still clutching his knees in a fetal position, “when I tried to make a fast pass through the neighborhood, there were some kids who clotheslined me. The stupid rope took me right off the bike. I didn’t lie about the Marine either, except for the cigar part.”

“So then what?” asked Kevin. “You guys just sat down and had a nice chat?”

“Almost like that,” said Danny. “I went to junior high with Connor Strickland. He kept them from shooting me.”

“This is rich,” said Kevin laughing, “that’s the son of the guy we are going to hit tomorrow. So what did the place really look like?”

“Pretty much what I told you,” said Danny. “There were people all around, like a party. They were passing out food and the kids were playing. There was some plywood up but it mostly looked like it did when I lived there.”

“You lived there?” said Kevin incredulously. “So they wanted you to come back, you know, all sins forgiven?”

“Not really. A bunch of the neighbors wanted to shoot me straight up,” said Danny. “But Connor stopped them. Connor was also the kid that stopped my Dad from beating me and then in the eighth grade, he …”