THE TRASHMAN (32 page)

I stood to leave. “Pastor Watts, I don’t know what place religion should have in this… in this... Forgive me, in this fucked up mess we call life. I will say I can find no fault in what you said to me. No one should fear God. Teach love.”

I found William in the control room. His eyes were not on the monitors and the persistent dark circles under his eyes had shrunk to barely noticeable.

“You’re looking well, William. Not so tired.”

He pointed to a surveillance monitor showing Carl talking to a circle of men dressed in BDUs. “No more, twelve on and twelve off, we’ve got men to stand watch.”

“Are you and Carl still determined to start a town?”

“Yes, more than ever now that we see the possibility of gathering enough decent people to populate it. We’re considering names. Personally, I’m leaning toward New Hope. Carl favors Elysium.”

“I’m for New Hope,” I said. “More than anything else, hope is what’s needed.”

“You did some good work, Ralph. Your first day on the mission, actually within an hour, you sent us people. Then the Pastor arrived with his flock and now you’ve added more. The children you brought are more precious than gold.”

“Thank you, William.”

“What’s next for you?”

“I want out of here. Being around people, having to have conversations… I simply can’t handle it. I reckon I’ll head back to the Smokies and finish what I started and then I’ll go about finding more people to send your way.”

William heard my statement and grimaced. “I knew you probably wouldn’t stick. Ralph, the truth, how do you handle the killing? How is it affecting you?”

“The truth. In the beginning, the first time I shot a man, I thought of him as a man, a fellow human, and I could feel for him. Now that I’ve seen the harm that bad people can do, it’s like a job that has to be done. Evil people are like broken parts, empty cans, broken shards of glass that need to be disposed of. Once you throw away trash, you never think about it again.

“I’ll tell you what does affect me. A young dead couple on the road, the husband gunned down, the wife raped and then murdered. Young girls used as sex objects and forced to be servants. A metal cage full of men, women and children, left for days to starve, to wallow in their own shit and piss while they wait for their executioners.

“Not too long ago I looked through a window and saw a man cooking stew. In the back bedroom lay a woman, tied naked spread-eagle to the bedposts, beaten so badly that her nose lay flat against her cheek.

“I used to be Ralph Olmstead, and I worked with computers. Now I’m ‘The Trashman’ and I’m running behind on my job.”

*****

The next few days, while waiting for Doctor Van to release me for duty, cemented my resolve to leave. The early camaraderie with William and Carl was at an end. William, though freed from the grueling duty of standing guard twelve hours each day, now found his time consumed by the administrative morass of shaping a growing number of people into a viable community. The fact that many of the newcomers were joining the Guard, thus shifting responsibility for them over to Carl, did go a long way in reducing the load. It is much easier to issue orders to people than to reason with them.

Carl had his hands full training the raw recruits. Add in the fact he had a new best friend, a retired marine sergeant he and Salvo had found down in Valdosta.

Gunny Sergeant McClung had taken on the responsibility of protecting three survivors, two women and a seven-year-old boy. He, and the three he’d taken under his wing had avoided exposure to the virus. One of the women didn’t survive the antibiotic cure.

For five days, I aimlessly wandered the grounds and buildings of the depot. A man I didn’t know, a newly appointed supply clerk named, PFC Jones, an insurance salesman in his previous life, took me on a tour of the underground storage bunkers.

At the entrance to a small, concrete-block building, he entered the pass-code for an electronic door lock. I heard a click and the steel door slid aside into the wall. The building housed a freight elevator.

Jones began speaking as the door slid closed. “There are two levels. Level one is everything but armament, food, clothing, and etcetera. Level two is weapons and ammo. I’ve only been here at the Armory for a week and I don’t know much about the weapons. I’m studying the material… the manuals. But It’ll take me a year to learn all the stuff in them. There are over two thousand individual files on the computer down there.”

“I can imagine. How did you come to be at the Armory?”

“Salvo and Carl caught me looting a convenience store over near I-75. I thought I was dead for sure. They’re some mean looking ‘mothers’ in full military gear. Found out they’re two of the nicest guys you can meet as long as you’re a decent sort. On the way back here, two guys had a two-lane road blocked with a dump truck. Carl, he was driving, went to back up. Another dump pulled in behind us to block that way, too.”

“Boxed ya’ll in,” I said. The elevator had stopped on the first level and the door had been open for some time. I motioned for him to lead the way.

Jones stepped though into a large, open bay. Several electric powered forklifts were lined up at charging stations, ready for use. There were also two golf carts. I moved to be beside him.

“Yeah, we were boxed, but not for long. Carl and Salvo were like machines. Carl said, “On three. I’ll take the front.” On three, they left the front seats of the jeep. Four shots and all the ambushers were dead. One of them did fire a round though. It came right through the windshield and out the back glass. It couldn’t have missed me by more than an inch.”

Listening to his tale, I settled into the passenger’s seat of the golf cart.

“Carl saw the holes in the glass, and said, “Next time there’s a firefight it might behoove you to grab some floorboard.”

Jones had begun driving, pulling into a random aisle between steel shelving racks of the sort you’d find at a lumber supply. The aisle was long.

I asked him, “How big is this place?”

“About half the size as the Depot grounds, a little under five acres. From what I understand, Moody air base down near Valdosta was the base for an airmobile combat rescue squadron. This depot was one of Moody’s main places to warehouse stuff. Besides food, and clothing and such, there’s a tremendous amount of medical supplies housed on this level.”

I eyed the pallets of canned goods stacked to the ceiling which had to be twenty-feet high. “And the second level’s as big as this one?”

We’d reached the end of the aisle and Jones went around the end to enter another one going back in the direction we’d come from.

“Yep, just as big. There has to be enough rifles, pistols, rockets, and grenades to outfit a small army for years to come. William… Major Allen wants to send a team to Moody to secure the choppers and stuff there, but we don’t have enough men.”

We arrived back at the parking area for the cart.

“If you want to see the lower level I’ll have to call for authorization.”

“I don’t see a need, but I do need to get up-top. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment.”

As we approached the elevator door, it opened, and several women led by Sarah Hawkins, exited. Stephanie was with them. She waited until we got there. I asked Jones for a minute and he continued to the elevator to give us privacy.

“How are you doing, Ralph? You look a lot better. I don’t think the cut on your forehead will leave much of a scar.”

I smiled and gave her shoulder a pat. “I give credit to Doctor Van for that. You’re looking better, too. I’m glad to see a smile on your face.”

“I’ve got plenty to smile about. You know Delores, the Nigerian nurse with Doctor Van?”

“I didn’t know her name, but I know who you mean.”

“Well she and I have a thing, you know. I mean, with men I can’t seem…”

I knew what she was trying to say. “You like her a lot, huh?”

“Oh God, yes.” She seemed relieved I’d taken command of the conversation.

“What are you all doing down here?” I asked.

“I’ve been assigned, volunteered actually to work with Missus Hawkins. We’re down here to assess our needs to set up a knowledge depository. This Depot and ultimately the town will be dedicated to preserving computers and tablets, even I-phones. Books, too.”

I didn’t tell her I was the source of that theme. “Speaking of Doctor Van, I’ve an appointment with him in thirty minutes. Want me to say ‘hi’ from you if I see Delores?”

Stephanie blushed. “No. Look, she wants to keep our relationship on the down low for now. I shouldn’t have told anyone, but I couldn’t help myself.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Thanks.” She took a few steps and then turned to say a few words before joining the other women, “Ralph, you’re different from most men. If you were younger I think I could have went for you.”

I was only a few minutes with Doctor Van. With a warning to not over-do-it, he released me to active duty. I left his office feeling light on my feet and ready to go. I did see Nurse Delores and because of my conversation with Stephanie, I noticed her in a different way. She was tall and thin. Her hair was short cropped to a burr cut and her face was long and narrow. She couldn’t be called beautiful in the common sense, but she was striking in an exotic fashion, like a runway model.

Walking from the clinic to find William, I got to thinking how I hadn’t thought about sex, hadn’t really looked at a woman ever since Becky died.

Thinking farther along that line, I realized I knew nothing about any of the people I’d sent here and could only recognize the faces of people I’d interacted with, people like Stephanie and Pastor Watts and the plump girl, Betty. These thoughts led me to the possibility I might be having some sort of mental problem. I switched course and went in search of the Pastor.

I found him outside the perimeter fence. He was working with a crew planting steel posts for another fence to expand the perimeter. He didn’t mind taking a break to listen to me.

“So, if I understand what you are implying, you’re worried you may have a lust for killing as a means to avoid thinking about things, killing simply to have something to occupy your mind. Is it just evil people you want to kill?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t think about killing just anybody I come across.”

“Ralph, I’m not a psychologist and as I told you, my faith is on shaky grounds right now. I do know this. I don’t care why you killed those men who held me and my people prisoners. I’m glad you killed them all. I’m glad you blew them up and I only wish they could have suffered more.”

I could see he was speaking from his heart. “Maybe you’re beyond shaky ground, Pastor Watts.”

“Yes, I am. You want affirmation for your actions, go ask any of my people if they would rather you didn’t kill those bastards who caged us like animals. Go ask a few of the girls the Bradfords were using as whores if they’d like you to pull back the bullets that killed them.

“In the past, I would say the Lord is guiding you, but now I’ll say, to hell with why. Don’t question your motives. Keep doing what you’re doing. This messed up world needs men like you, and Carl, and Salvo. Go find people in need of a safe haven and kill anyone who tries to stop you from bringing them here.”

I nodded and clasped his shoulder with my hand. “We all have a rough road to ride. I hope along the way you find a way back to faith.”

He took my hand from his shoulder and held it in his. “Be careful out in the wild. Evil stalks the world outside this fence.”

I located William in the mess hall. He was at a table with Salvo having coffee. Salvo saw me enter and waved me over.

“Sit Señor Ralph. Many days have gone and we have yet to speak.”

I slid onto a chair. “I’m sorry about your loss… About Mercedes.”

“
Si.
My little heart misses his mama and my heart still cries for her. It is sad, but in her bed to die, my Mercedes say she gladly give her life so José can live. I have pain from her words, but if I was the one to die, the same would be my words.”

“I hear you and Carl have been collecting more than a few new citizens. Carl is quite a soldier.”

“
Si
, and now he trains me. Him and the new marine sergeant work Salvo to turn into a strong soldier for New Hope. I have the new hope in my blood now.”

I cast a quizzical look toward William. “New Hope won the vote?”

“Overwhelmingly. Carl was depressed for all of ten seconds.”

“I like the name… William, I’m here to let you know Dr. Van says I’m fit to travel. My stomach muscles are still weak, but he said only exercise can fix that.”

“Are you still intent on going back to the Smokies?”

“Yeah. I need to see if any of Bradford’s scum is still skulking around in the hills. Another thing is, I figure a lot of people headed for the mountains thinking they could live off the land and avoid people. By now most of those city slickers will have figured out it’s hard to survive without at least the rudiments of civilization. Some of those will be in trouble. I hope to find them and send them to you.”

“It’s just as likely some of them have turned into criminals preying on others,” William said.

“Then I’ll have to take out the trash, won’t I?”

I shook hands with them and left to pack my gear. I got permission from William to allow PFC Jones to open the Armory so I could resupply with new weapons, ammo, and explosives. If I left early in the morning, I could be back in the Smoky Mountains by 1:00 or 2:00 p.m.

*****

That’s how I come to be resting here by Santeetlah Lake. I spotted a gang of Hispanics working a bridge on highway 28 that crossed a branch of Lake Fontana called Fingerlake.

Traffic on the road was light, but the few cars or trucks travelling on it made it no farther than the bangers ambush site. I guess it was happening all across the nation. Ambushed; men and old women killed, oft times children, too. The younger women and girls raped and then either killed afterward, or kept as merchandise to share or trade.

With so much in the way of supplies still available, the only things of value are gasoline, food, dope, and always women. Women are more valuable than gold in this post-apocalyptic world.