Part 21 Aftermath, and Resting - Revised

I watched the zombie feast for as long as I could stand it then got up and tried to find some, other place inconspicuous as the family drama carried on nearby. They had James sitting with his back to a tree, the weapon safely out of reach and both adults signing more gently to him. The boy had tears in his eyes and was shaking his head and making the same sign over and over again, palm flat against his forehead and flinging the hand outwards via the wrist. I later found out that this meant “I don't know”. He was sobbing quietly. For a bit it was like watching a silent movie where everything was pantomimed... hey! I just realized the fact that I could learn this family's language, by watching quietly.

But not at this moment, I took another glance down hill and saw that the walkers in the ditch with the unfortunate broken leg hunter were spread out on the other two bodies. Crap, tactically not a bright idea to be hanging around. Those shotgun guys were dead a third of the way up the hill. If James should choose to shout out once more, they'll hear him. With no covering sound of firearms, and screams, the zombies could stop their feeding and go to investigate. It isn't clear why, but it's been observed enough by myself and others that I've talked to that they'll do that. I cleared my throat and caught Frank's attention. I only called his attention away since nobody's hands were moving at the moment. Maggie pretty much ignored me and was watching her son.

Frank stood up and walked slowly to me, I made a “down” motion to him and he dropped instantly to a crouching walk, he reached for his sidearm and I shook my head, holding up my hand waving it off. He took his hand up and used it as a balance as he stepped quietly. When he reached me, he took a knee besides me. His face winced as he did so and inwardly I winced along with him. Must've hurt him to kneel like that. He looked at me for a long moment, reading me was the feeling I got from him. Wondering what I planned to do next. I didn't say anything for a long moment, looking back down the hill at the three zombies, each having their own private meal. I then raised my gaze to the two lane portion of our side of the freeway. Seemed that parts of the herd, were moving off.

The sniper, had long been silent as well. He perhaps moved on, to avoid getting stuck where-ever he was shooting from. Looking out at the terrain, he could only have been, like James was, when we first met, sitting in a tree-stand. Without looking at Frank, I commented on it.

“Whom-ever that sniper was, they've had some training. Their shots sounded a good ways off.” My voice was quiet but not at a whisper. We were still too far up the hill, for any of the zeds below to hear anything less than a shout. Frank nodded and sat down beside me awkwardly, favoring one knee. “I'd estimate he's about 700 yards away, judging from the time lapse of the report to the hit,” he paused looking up at the trees across the far side of the freeway for a moment. “With the wind against him. I'm guessing Ranger or SEAL level.” He glanced at me to see if I had any impression from it. I wasn't impressed. I knew that the U.S.-military did have some of the best snipers in the world, next to the Brits and some of the other Euro-nations.

“Yeah well, he's likely long gone.” I muttered.
“Yes, he could very well be, or, headed towards us.”

At that, I had to agree of the possibility. The unknown was, if he was going to be looking for trouble or help. His whole group got wiped out, right in front of him, as he watched from the scope of his rifle. One thing is, that he would have to cross over open highway to get to our side. The angle of the ejecta from the zombie's heads showed the general area of where he was shooting from. It was too consistent. He never missed. I'd dare say he was better than James. If he was ex-military or still active yet hooked up with the Hunters as a means of survival, he could be reasoned with if he wasn't looking for help. It was an unknown. Without Frank and his family I'd already moved on and forgotten the guy. Without Frank and his family I doubt that I'd been caught up in the events of the past few days. I wasn't feeling resentful of course but it's the Robert Frost analogy of choosing a path that diverged in the woods. For me hooking up with Maggie, Frank and James was the path less taken. It has indeed made a world of difference. Somewhere along the way I fell in love. Something that I hadn't thought would've been possible.

I studied Frank for a moment. He was in military field garb but I couldn't see any signs of rank or even insignia. I asked him about it and if he had any on him. He nodded and reached into an inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out velcro-ed unit patches and his eagles. “You think I should put these on do you?” I nodded affirmatively. “The sniper, if he's still an active duty but displaced from his unit, he might still respond to your authority and he doesn't have to know you're retired.” Frank nodded and gave a slight grin. “I guess he wouldn't have to at that.” His face fell, “then again he could be rouge. Hanging out with scum like those Hunters doesn't speak favorably of his character.

“So what's our next plan?” he asked me. It wasn't as a request for suggestions. I was taken aback that he was putting leadership reins in my hands.

I thought quietly for a moment then, “We need to scram on outta here and back deeper into the woods a ways and set up a watch. Say about a couple hundred yards. We might find a clearing or a spot where we can clear without much trouble. Later we can claim our stuff back when the herd moves on. But I got a feeling that we're going to be spending the night out here in the open. We could build rudimentary shelters if it gets cold. But no fire. If we're lucky the herd will move on as soon as,” I swallowed, “as soon as they're full or there's nothing left. I've seen it before, but I was safely inside a Semi.”

“And what about the sniper?”
 “We're going to have to deal with him as he comes... or not.”

Frank nodded and I could see approval in his eyes but not on his face. Impassive, like a rock. Without another word I got up easily, and stood holding out a hand to Frank. He looked at it then at me and grabbed it, gathering his feet beneath him and pulled himself up. I was about to let go but he held on to our grip. “I'm glad Maggie and James met you.” Then quickly stepped away, walking towards his daughter and grandson. I sighed and followed, figuring that the worst of the crisis was passed. As I approached, James looked at me, his eyes red from crying but still holding a fierceness towards me that I wasn't liking at all. Not after seeing how much he liked to kill. The Hunters were not the first live humans that he has killed. But it is a lot different than killing zombies, because they're already dead. Shells of the people that once inhabited them. Where they should've been rotting in their graves or where they fell, they walked and hungered. They were opportunist feeders, almost like some species of sharks or jackals. There was no rest, no respite from their search for food. That's all we were to them. In a way that was a good thing. The dead had turned into creatures that had one purpose, eating. If they'd been capable of thinking or reasoning... the thought was just too horrible to consider.

I waited til I had Maggie's attention and she was ready to sign what I was going to say for the boy's benefit. “We're going to need to move further into the woods and set up a small camp. We're going to have to wait out the zombies on the freeway to move on.” I took a breath and continued. “If we're lucky the ones closest to us now will go on back down the hill and join the rest of the herd which is beginning to move on. But there's another thing to worry about.” I paused waiting to allow Maggie to catch up. She finished within five seconds of my last word. Impressive, I thought.

“That sniper might be the only survivor of that Hunter group. Frank and I think he may either moved on away or is coming towards us.” I let it sink in. “He might be military trained and could respond to Frank's insignia and rank. Or, he might not.

“Point is, we're going to need to post watches around the clock for him and for any stray zombies. We can't have a fire, that'd be like having one of those big spotlights pointed up at the sky. It shouldn't get too cold tonight but we can always huddle if necessary.” James just nodded and turned around and took a few steps away from all of us. “He'll be alright” Frank's voice answered. “Just needs a little space to work it all through.” I was surely hoping so.

With that, we moved about quietly deeper into the woods until we found a decent clearing and went about setting up a type of camp. Using our knives to clear any tall weeds and grass and moving rocks and sticks out of the way. With Frank and James working together, Maggie and I had a chance to talk. She looked like she aged overnight, her eyes red and swollen and face haggard and shallow. So much that I could see the heavy emotional toll the past couple of hours had on her. I bet that combat was nothing like this. She loved her son as any mother should. James was still very young, too young to be exposed to all of this. I wanted to remind her that in other parts of the world kids James' age and younger were exposed to the same dangers and worse. With no law enforcement and protection, basically a lot of bad stuff can happen to kids. I'd remind her of that but knew that to a parent, nothing else matters except their own child.

“You okay?” I asked with a tone of hesitancy, letting her know I'd back off if she wanted. She raised her eyes up to me and gave a small grin with a shrug of her shoulders. “Yeah, I'd be alright. Been through worse than this.”

I suddenly felt empathy for this woman. “No, you're having to go through hell right now.” I caught her attention. “All of us are, in our own way. But you,” taking her shoulders in my hands, “having to try and deal with your son in the middle of all this. I'm hoping that this Wildfire place will at least give us a chance to breathe and think.” She stepped into my arms and I held her closely for a long moment. Could've stayed like that but we had work to do. I gently broke contact and stepped away. “We need to get things set up for tonight. She nodded without looking at me and continued on our side of the clearing. Priority was survival and ensuring at we would be able to at least sleep enough between watches to get some rest for tomorrow.

Wishing that I had at least a small hatchet, I had to make do with the big hunting knife that I kept at my side, opposite of my sidearm. It wasn't exactly designed for tree-limbs but it would suffice. I found several clumps of down limbs by one tall pine, they still had greenery on them so a proper lean-to could be made between two trees growing closely to one another. Everything I had to make a nice lean-to was down in my pack in the back of the truck driven by Maggie and myself. Going to have to make do with what we got, even if it meant using shoe-laces to tie stuff together.

Looking about I could see Frank and James coming back towards us, dragging branches and limbs behind them. They didn't make too much noise but it didn't matter at this point. We were far enough off the highway that whatever noise we did make wouldn't have been heard... or attract attention. I hoped.

Frank sat down to rest and James dropped his load and stood for a moment, not looking at anything in particular and then walked off, presumably to look for more wood. I watched him for few minutes. Poor kid, not such a great childhood that's for sure. At least this part of it. I found myself that I did want to know more. “Frank?” The man looked up at me, his eyes bright and clear, despite the tired lines in his face. “Wondering about James”, nodding in the boy's direction. “Something must be triggering this ...” searching for the right word, “aggression. It's like he's disappointed that whatever bubble he was in, or video game has burst and reality keeps intruding.” Frank glanced at his grandson, nodded and looked at me to continue. “Something, did happen before all of this...” I left the question dangling without asking straight out. Frank nodded again and leaned back against one of the trees and began speaking. I sat down on my haunches and began working on trimming the branches.

“I think it's largely my fault” he began. When I saw how Maggie and Brian, the boy's father, was raising him. Using discipline, structure and all that. I kinda went overboard in helping them, by being even harder, more strict. James lived with my wife and I whenever the two of them were doing a tour of duty or training. This was of course when he wasn't in that deaf school.” I looked up from my work and nodded for him to continue, but he didn't pay me any attention, he was watching something on the ground in front of him as he told his story.

“We loved him, my Emily and I, and we let him play as a boy his age should. He loved it on the farm, riding the ATV's, playing in the barn, shooting targets, whatever. I started teaching him how to camouflage himself, making it a game to see if I could spot him. If I did, I pop him one with a paintball gun. It stung but it taught him to get better.” He glanced quickly at Maggie. “She doesn't know about the paint ball thing” he added hastily and in a lower voice, holding his finger to his lips.

“I think what happened at the hospital on the day of the outbreak is probably what's been bothering him the most.” I nodded, “Maggie told me about it. Really awful stuff for a kid to go through.

Did she mention that he was wounded but was still able to walk and hitch-hiked his way back to the farm. By the time he got to there, he was sick as a dog. Fever, hunger, dehydrated. Took him a week do it. Hardly stopped to rest. That is some kid, I'll tell ya.” We both looked at him as he walked around almost aimlessly picking up fallen pine branches and bunching them up in one hand to drag back to us. Maggie didn't mention James was wounded as well. This bumped up my estimation of the kid considerably.

“I,” he continued, “nursed him until Maggie showed up from the base. She got knocked around a bit too and was shell-shocked, but otherwise unharmed. It didn't matter, she wouldn't leave her boy's side. Sometimes sleeping with her head on the foot of his bed. Meanwhile I was listening and watching to all that insanity going on the computer.”

I could only just nod that I understood what he was saying but the pieces were still not quite altogether. Still some unanswered questions remained but I let them go for the time being. Frank seemed a little talked out so I let it rest. Part of me wanted to go check on the herd. If we were lucky they'd moved on already and maybe I could sneak down and grab some gear from the trucks. I stood up and put the branches I gathered on the pile that was accumulating near where Frank and James had started. I glanced around for James and Maggie and saw them standing together talking a little ways from where we had worked. Their hands moved slowly, gently, which told me that they were talking civil to one another without any contention. I looked back at Frank to tell him I was going to check on the walker herd and saw that he was asleep against the tree. I watched him for a long moment, seeing his chest rise and fall and was satisfied that he was okay.

I started walking off towards the highway stepping lightly. Frank's voice called out to me, “John.” I stopped and turned and saw he was looking at me and waited. I stepped back over and squatted down on my haunches beside him. His voice was low enough for just the two of us to hear. “If you're thinking about going back to sneak some supplies from the truck just be careful and don't get spotted now.” The look on my face caused him to grin. “You learn how to read people when you get to my age.” He winked, “just don't let Maggie catch you or she'll have both our hides.” I took a quick glance and saw that she and James were now seated together on a fallen log and were still talking. “Yeah,” I agreed, “she would. Just I got food, water and sleep stuff in my pack, it's in the back of the truck on top of everything under the tarp, I just wan-” Frank held up his hand to stop me from further explaining. “Just be careful son” was all he said. He tilted his hat back down over his eyes and laced his fingers over his stomach.

I took another glance at Maggie and saw she was still in conversation with James. I got up and walked off quietly as I could in the direction of the highway.