Chapter 2: Hill
Dawn, the promise of a new beginning. Today especially so. This was the day long awaited. I turned toward the orange splash spreading across the horizon. Time to survey my kingdom. I whistled. Pegasus came running across the wood deck.
This place was crazy with cats. Rats and mice not so much. He rubbed against my leg and meowed. I smiled. White and not fully grown, he had been my near constant companion for the last three months.
“Come on, Pegasus. You know the routine. When we get to the top.” He sprinted up the steps. Good sign.
My nemesis stretched up the cliff into the murky darkness. I hesitated. Today. I could -- no, would do it. One, two, three. I counted as I climbed. I stopped, sighed and hung my head. Maybe tomorrow.
When this strange aberration started, I couldn’t remember. Recently though. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen. I suppose I began counting steps after we settled into a routine at the quarry. I reached the first landing and headed up the next flight of steps.
Thoughts of Paula brought a smile to my lips. Much had changed in the three months since we’d rescued her. For starters, I’d acquired what had eluded me my entire life, a best friend. Also, we’d honed our rescue procedures. Long gone were the miscues which plagued our earliest efforts.
Seventy-five, seventy-six, seventy-seven, I reached the top. Fucking sevens. I was sick of sevens. I’d be glad when I turned eighteen and put that seven behind me. Before opening the gate, I glanced up at the lookout post in the tree ahead. Frank Morris, one of our first rescues, flashed the all clear.
Frank was a good man. A bit of an oddball, he didn’t like being around people. Night watch at the top of quarry hill suited him just fine. The problem was getting him to come down.
“Sup, Frankie?” The gate clanged closed behind me.
Frank grunted. He disappeared behind the siding and reappeared holding a bag. “I got a good one today. Fresh. Your little fur ball ought to like it.” He tossed the sack, which hit the ground with a muffled thud.
“How fresh?” I nudged the bag with my boot.
“Fresh enough. And no, no trouble last night, Annabel. Thanks for asking.”
“Thanks, Frank.” I untied the drawstrings and dumped the contents onto the ground. Pegasus pounced on the squirrel. I walked over to the guardrail and surveyed the scene below.
The warehouse was quarried out of a single hill. Sixty feet below sat the offices and loading docks for complex A. Built of concrete, the docks jutted out fifty feet from the cliff. Another such loading dock sat on the other side of the hill. Two big half-circular parking lots flanked quarry hill.
The biggest set of tits in the world, Dewey liked to call it.
Two Humvee’s sat parked against the chain link fence. Theo was back. It’d been days since I’d seen him. This had been a busy week; a large herd of undead had walked past. Mistakes were made. People were getting careless.
Three hordes in seven days. Fuck. Our fences weren’t made to handle that. Repairs were flimsy, held together with not much more than dental floss now. Was the danger over? I shook my head.
If only the undead were my biggest worry.
I pondered the dream yet again. Beware the blood price. I just didn’t know what the words meant. I knew I wasn’t supposed to know. Not yet. My dreams, visions, whatever -- once a morbid source of comfort, had turned against me.
Words, seemed from a lifetime ago and yet revealed just six months back, floated through my mind. The price for cheating death falls irreversibly on the obedient sister of the Xích Quý. Were the phrases connected?
Noticing something on Theo’s Humvee roof, I lifted my binoculars. Strapped to his roof sat a playground see saw. I snorted, smiled, and rolled my eyes. Another something for the orphans.
The sun broke over the horizon. I looked at my walkie-talkie: five fifty-seven. Major Penri would be out in three minutes. Down below, the home guards lined up for inspection.
That was my cue; my shift was over. Anthony had duty now. I spoke into my radio, “Anthony, come in.”
“Big board here. All’s green,” Anthony said.
“Roger. See you at the seven.”
I turned my walkie-talkie down. Anthony would be on the radio for the next hour getting reports from the outposts and I didn’t feel like hearing it today. In the ensuing silence, the only noise was from Pegasus cracking bones while she ate her breakfast. I shuddered and turned the radio back up.
Just a few more all nighters. Get the new guy up to speed and I’d be done as night coordinator. I leaned against the guardrail, closed my eyes and listened to the early morning sounds.
I stretched out my arms to let the sun wash over me. I listened for the slightest murmur through the trees. I didn’t know what or where it was, but wickedness came my way. Ever closer. Again.
I stood silent, waiting. My hair fluttered in the toil worn wind. Didn’t it? The passage of the last few yards from the trees to me taxed reality’s endurance of this vile intrusion into the natural world.
I breathed deep, held my breath and concentrated. Sighs floated through the leaves, nebulous voices adrift on a windless breeze. I squeezed my eyes tighter. Through the woods, the darkly deep searched me out. Grasping, clutching at --
“Oh look, she’s playing titanic again,” Theo said.
It disappeared. My hands trembled; my palms ached from my fingernails pressed into my flesh. I exhaled and blew droplets of sweat from my nose. My heart pounded as I drew ragged breaths and lowered my arms.
Still, I had something to smile about.
I whirled around to find Theo and my older brother Chris before me. “Thanks, Frankie!”
“All clear.” Frank grinned.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Chris said, his half-Vietnamese face clouded with worry.
“I know. But habits are hard to break.”
“People are talking.”
“Let them. It gives ‘em something to do. I’m not hurting anyone.”
“Maybe you should listen to the rumors.” Chris frowned.
“I know. Susan’s told me,” I said, my eyes on Theo.
Two long, pale welts ran down his left cheek from his nose to chin. He also walked with a limp these days, not much but it was noticeable. He was looking rough. Five days and nights in the bush will do that. However, he was smiling and that smile was all for me.
“Come here,” he said. “If Chris is bitching, let’s give him something to bitch about.”
I ran to give Theo a hug. “Damn, you stink,” I said after we kissed.
“Yeah, well. The Mayor tells me to go out and save people and that’s what I do. I got the day off, so plenty of time to get cleaned up.”
I pulled away and frowned at the idea of Dewey in charge of the extractors.
“Get over it,” Theo said. “Just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean he’s not good at what he does.”
“It’s not -- just -- that I don’t like him. I don’t trust him.”
“Well, I do. He’s a jackass, sure. But he’s the best extractor we have.”
I pursed my lips. “Maybe. But if he gets you killed, don’t expect me to come running to off you.”
“Time,” Chris said.
“Oh, right.” I glanced at Theo’s watch. “The big day. How exciting.”
Chris led us down the steps. “I’ll tell you what’s exciting; if Jane passes those five at the police station we’ll surpass one hundred adults. That’s exciting.”
“Good.” Theo let out a satisfied snort. “More bodies for the phew crew. I’m sick of working in that stench.”
We made our way down to the deck where Major Penri and my younger sister Susan were waiting. The major, always smartly dressed in his field uniform, looked especially polished today. I didn’t know how bald heads work, but his ebony skin gleamed as if polished.
“Morning, Major,” I said. “You look like you’re headed to a parade.”
“Might be. Anthon
y had six of us dress for the occasion.”
“You’re -- almost giddy.” I laughed.
“Yes, Madame Mayor, I suppose I am.” Penri smiled and bounced on his toes.
Anthony poked his head out the door and said, “Time, Major.”
We filed into the warehouse. Once inside, we checked our weapons with the guard. The rule was simple, no one in with a weapon and no one out without a weapon.
“Theo! Theo’s back,” young voices cried out. Six children ranging in age from four to eleven came running across the cavern. The orphans ran up and crowded around him.
“Knock it off,” Theo said, not unkindly. “You need to get to class and I have something important to do. After school, I have a surprise for you. Now get.”
Yeah, Theo hates kids. I smiled. The children complained but left after the school whistle blew.
Penri and five militiamen lined up at the office door, three on each side. People gathered around waiting.
“Places everyone,” Anthony said.
We took up positions alongside Penri and the other militiamen. Little Carmen stood at the door with her hand on the handle. Anthony nodded and she pulled the door open.
“Attention,” Penri bellowed.
In unison, and obviously well practiced, all six militiamen snapped erect and tilted their rifles foreword. In the shadows of the office, an old man stepped forward….
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