I stopped in front of the tower, two guards stood at the entry double doors. Calling it a castle was no joke, it was. True, I had never been inside an actual castle, but the feel of it seemed right. The building was solid brick on the outside with huge double entry doors made of steel, standing ten feet tall. The outside guards wore exquisite uniforms with bright colors and fancy hats, an honored position.
I glanced at the side before advancing to the main doors. Two soldiers stood guard by the window I had used. They don’t know it was me, if they did, I would be arrested by now. My mind flashed to Simon and then to the stupid thing I had done. They can throw me out.
There was no time to linger on it. I had to get to Simon. I moved forward to go inside and the first guard blocked my path, stepping in front of me. His height and weight dwarfed mine, so fighting my way through would not work. Charm might. “Hello, I’m Zora Baker. I’m here to visit my brother, Simon Baker.” I smiled my best seductive smile.
He looked me up and down carefully. If I could read his mind, I might cringe, but I began the game so it wasn’t his fault. “Are you armed?”
“No,” a bigger smile this time.
“The children are our future and must be protected. Submit to a search and you may pass.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, if it got me to Simon, I would submit. “Okay.” I held my arms out to my sides and looked him squarely in the eyes. If my look said anything, it said, no funny business, mister.
The second guard came behind me and carefully searched while the other held eye contact with me. I stared into hazel eyes and remained as rigid as possible. This is nothing, I’ve been through worse. When satisfied, the first guard stepped aside and I entered the building.
Inside, light filtered in through small high windows. I stood in a wide hallway with three doors twenty feet in front of me.
It was quiet and I felt as if I were in a library as I slowly walked forward to the tall doors ahead of me. I stopped and read the writing. The center door’s sign warned of no entry by unauthorized persons, I assumed that meant me. To my left, the girls’ dormitory and to my right, the boys’, I excitedly turned the boys’ doorknob, doing my best to stop the shaking in my hand. A jumble of emotions soared through me.
I entered into another hallway and all joy squelched from inside me. In the center of the hallway hung a body, a zombie corpse strung up from the ceiling rafters. Someone had placed a pan below it to catch its drippings. I instinctively put my hand to my nose to keep away the smell. How could this be?
The door at the end of the room opened and sound filtered to me, happy sounds of children laughing, screaming, and playing. I looked to the door with my hand over my nose and saw a young girl waving at me. “Hey.”
I walked around the zombie and went to her. “Hey.”
“Remember me, Hannah Mutton?”
How could she stand there like that? All smiles without her hand over her nose. Her bewildered look gave way to ridicule as she glanced behind me at the hanging zombie. She shook her head and opened the door wider, motioning me forward. I went through the door.
I stopped her. “Hannah?” I can’t say I smelled the corpse; I didn’t want to give myself that thrill. Now with the door shut, I breathed in the surrounding air with exuberance. “Isn’t this the boys’ dormitory?”
“Yes,” said Hannah, giving me a strange look.
“Shouldn’t you be next door?”
“Yes, but we can come over during the day. Dorm curfew isn’t for another hour. Do you remember me?”
Hannah wore a simple blue dress with pants. She had on a pair of black boots that had a silver tip on them. I can only assume she wore steel-toed boots. Her hair was dark brown and pulled back behind her with a white scrunchy. Her small round face beamed at me, wanting recognition.
“You sat with Simon during lunch.”
“Yes.”
I searched my mind, wondering if she had been one of the children in the room with the zombies. I believe she was, but I couldn’t question her about it or I would give myself away. They might be looking for me.
“Hannah? Why is there a zombie hanging in the hallway?”
“That’s Peter Kelly.”
“You know it, I mean him?”
Hannah’s expression altered to wide-eyed amazement. “He was bad. They warned him not to be out after curfew and he left.”
“He left?”
“Yes! He sneaked out to meet with his fiancee Rhonda Hillson. They were lovers.”
Her cavalier attitude took me by surprise. I appraised her and believed her to be roughly twelve years old. What did she know about lovers? Maybe they were stealing kisses.
Hannah continued with both dread and excitement etched into her face. “It happened last week. They didn’t like it here and Rhonda’s mom was leaving and taking her away. Peter sneaked out to go with them. They were hiding in this old house surrounded by zombies. When the guards found them a day later, Silvia, that’s Rhonda’s mother, she had bitten this huge chunk out of Peter and was eating Rhonda’s leg. Poor thing, they had to shoot her in the head.”
“Oh my god!”
“It’s all true. They killed four zombies in the basement of the house. Peter turned the next day and they killed him.”
“Wh-wh-why would they hang him in the hall like that?”
Hannah’s shocked face was for me, not Peter. “You can’t leave here, zombies will get you. This is our home now, not out there with zombies.”
“You’re children, Hannah, how could they do that to children?”
She puffed up her chest and stared at me. “I’m not a child. I’m the world’s future.”
This wasn’t going anywhere. She may not be old enough to understand the concept of a dead zombie hanging in a boys’ dormitory, dripping into a pan. How could they pass by that every day?
“That is not a good lesson to teach children. Zombies are everywhere. They could have just said that.”
The little girl puffed up again. “We’re not children, we’re the future. I killed a zombie, more than one.”
“What?”
“My brother, he was a zombie. I killed him.”
“What!” I knew my voice went high and cracked, I couldn’t help it. Her words floored me.
“It’s okay,” she tried comforting me. “He wasn’t my brother anymore. He was trying to eat me.”
Hannah said it with attitude, like I had no sense of why she would kill her own brother. There was also a mixture of pride in her tale. She had accomplished something extraordinary in her short life. Her face made it clear she was gearing up for another tale of horror. I sprang into action. I couldn’t tell if she truly was one of the children I had seen earlier and frankly didn’t want to know. “Where can I find Simon?”
“Follow me.”
“Okey dokey.”
She ogled me. I thought I might lighten the mood, I was wrong. Her small hazel eyes flicked back and forth, scanning my face. She turned back around and continued walking without further comment. It was strange, this place was strange. She led me and never dropped the confused expression she held. We went around a corner, down a hall, and around another corner before coming to a door. Hannah knocked in rhythmic fashion. The door flew open and Simon came into view.
“Hey, Zee.”
“Hey, Simon. You up for a visit?”
“Yeah, come on in.”
“I’ll see you later, Simon.”
“See you, Hannah. Thanks for bringing Zee.”
“Un-huh,” she waved bye to Simon and gawked at me before leaving.
“Nice girl.”
“Yeah, she is.”
Now that we were alone, I hugged him again. “Sorry, I can’t help it. I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.”
Simon’s room was small, matchbook small. The room held a tiny bed, a desk and chair, and a basket. Nothing hung on the walls. A candle burned on the desk and an overturned book lie on the unmade bed. I sat on the bed
and looked around again, in case I missed something the first time.
“Well,” said Simon, “what do you think?”
“Nice. What gives about the zombie in the hallway?”
I had not meant to say that, the words tumbled out before I could stop them. I’m still trying to correct that bad habit. I couldn’t very well ask him what he was doing with a machete and why he had bloodlust in his eyes.
“Hannah didn’t tell you?”
He knew me too well. “Yes, but I want to hear it from you.”
“That’s Peter. He was fifteen and a fool. He got himself killed for no-good reason. Now the rest of us know to be careful and not be a fool like Peter.”
“Love doesn’t make you a fool.”
I don’t know why I was arguing with him. My guess is that I didn’t want him to lose his humanity. To pass by something like that daily would desensitize him to zombies and reinforce love is for fools. Not only that, but to have a training class where zombies are brought in for children to kill, how barbaric.
Simon surveyed me like Hannah. I obviously didn’t get it. They had adjusted to their new world while I was out fighting zombies. Together, they had grown up and I had missed it.
“How are you, Zee?”
Oh god, here comes the shrink talk. “I’m fine, Doctor Spock. How about yourself?”
Simon chuckled. “Zee, it’s not bad here. These are good people and we are the future. One day zombies will be gone and we will start again, you know, like Adam and Eve. All of us. We will go forth and multiply. I want Florida, how about you?”
I laughed harder than I had laughed in a long time. I hugged him again. He knew how to make me laugh, the smarter of the two of us.
“I don’t know. I think I’ll go for Louisiana. I’ve always liked the word ‘bayou’ and I would have the Gulf of Mexico all to myself.”
Simon burst into laughter. Hearing his laughter made my heart somersault. “That’s a big backyard.”
“Yeah, if bored, I could get in my little rowboat and pop over to Mexico to one of those fancy resorts and live it up.”
We talked for ages and finally, a loud bell sounded. Simon stopped laughing at my latest silliness and grew stern. “It’s curfew, Zee. You have to get going. Come on, I will walk you out.”
I hated for our time to end. I got off the bed and followed him out. I made a mental note of the path so I could find his room without help for my next visit. I intended to be a frequent visitor. We made our way back to the hallway and I l looked at Peter, ahead of us. We stopped. I saw Simon giving him the evil eye and my stomach lurched and then dropped.
Something was seriously wrong with this place. I felt it in my bones. The feeling reaffirmed itself when three boys came in. The first swung the corpse and ran past. The other two made a game of it, trying to time their run to get past it without it touching them. They yelped with delight. I felt my scalp tightening in the front of my head. It was as if a hand was squeezing on my temples, trying to crush my skull.
I peeked at my brother, his grin egged them on. This must be a nightly occurrence, another reason for me to hate this place. I got to get us out of here. The thought rang in my head louder than the curfew bell.
After they made it through, unscathed, they politely spoke to me and left. I told Simon not to come any further. I hugged him and said goodnight, promising to see him in the morning. The truth, I didn’t want him near the zombie. I didn’t like what this new home was doing to these children and what it was turning my brother into. I passed by the zombie and went out the door. It took seconds to reach the front and I left the building.
It was dark outside. I glanced at the clock and discovered it was 6pm. “Excuse me, where do you go for guard duty?”
“That way, ma’am,” he pointed.
On my way there, I thought about what had happened during the day before and after I got here. Not paying attention to where I was going, I walked into a railing and almost fell. I kicked myself for my stupidity and sought evidence that I was safe. No one laughed or gawked at me, I was fine. I went around the barrier and kept marching to a little building near the back garden.
“Hey.”
I turned. “What?”
Jolly? The fire hose soldier, whatever his name was, called me. “Over here, Baker.”
I walked to him, stepped past him and into the small room. “Hey.” I smiled at two guys seated in the room around a small table. They were smoking and the air was choking me. I tried not to cough and to look friendly.
“Girls to the left,” boomed the bigger man at the table.
“Thank you.”
I turned the doorknob and went into the room. “Zee! Hey, how are you?”
“Britt? Oh my god, Britt!”
I ran to her as fast as my legs would carry me. I hit her with a force that sent us both backward, almost falling. We straightened to look each other over.
“Zee.”
“Oh my god, Britt. I forgot all about you, oh my god. How could I forget you?”
“I guess I’m not that memorable after all.”
Brittany said it jokingly, but I hurt her feelings. The one thing she wanted most was to make a difference and to not be forgotten and I, her best friend and blood brother had forgotten her in the space of a day. What is wrong with me? I thought of something worthwhile to say to make it all better.
“Yes, you are and don’t you ever forget it.”
“All right.”
“Where’s Jones and Charley? Are they here?”
I looked around, forgetting the man told me this side is for women only. Brittany soured. She held her head down and my stomach dropped for the millionth time.
“They didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
I held her arms so she couldn’t get away from me and frantically searched her face for some clue, some inkling of what was to come. What had happened to my team?
“Zee.”
“What, tell me,” my impatience boiled over.
“Zee,” she struggled to get the words out. I gripped her tighter. My eyes darted from her left to right eye for something I could grab on to. “Jones is fine. He will be on guard duty with us tonight.”
“And Charley?”
“Oh, Zee.”
I shook her. “Tell me, damn it. What happened to Charley?”
Brittany’s eyes pooled with large tears that would fall at any moment. “He didn’t make it, Zee. The zombies bit him during our fight. He died yesterday.”
I released her and fell back. Charley was dead. Like a ton of bricks it hit me and I hit the wall, thank god for the wall, otherwise I’d be on the floor. I covered my eyes to keep from crying for Charley. Through my hands I said, “I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her sorry didn’t help. I was a mess. Brittany came beside me and touched my shoulder. I turned to her and rested my head on her. She was there for me and she understood. We didn’t need words, she held me while I made sense of Charley’s death and his place in my heart.
I knew I had to get a hold of myself. They were waiting for us. Brittany wore an army uniform and when I looked down at her feet, I saw her partially laced boots. She must have been putting them on when I came in. I must have a similar uniform as well. Then it hit me.
I pushed myself from her to gaze into her blue eyes. “Wait! You said he died yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“How is that possible, we just arrived?”
Brittany gave me the same confused look the young girl had given me. Was I crazy? Why did everyone give me the same damn look? What was I missing?
“Zee?”
“What?”
“We’ve been here three days.”
“What! Three days, how is that possible?”
Brittany took a hold of me. I thought she was calming me down, she wasn’t. She pulled up the sleeve on my left arm. There I saw it, a Band-Aid, and beneath it, a wad of cotton. I
pulled up the Band-Aid and cotton and saw a yellow stained area with a small puncture wound in the center, an IV drip line. I focused on my friend and commanded her to speak, without saying a word.
“They have a new form of quarantine here,” her voice shook.
I knew she didn’t want to tell me the truth. “Go on.”
“They knock you out for two days, it doesn’t affect the virus. If you turn, you turn in your sleep and never wake up,” she added, “they shoot you in the head.”
“Oh god, no!”
I wailed. A knock came from the door. “We’re okay, be out in a minute,” shouted Brittany. She rubbed my back. I pulled myself together, time to behave like a proper soldier. Many had died and I would grieve for them all, once I was off duty.
Brittany showed me where everything was and I changed. It was difficult and I didn’t mind her helping me. I equate it with a mother helping a child into their clothes after a bath. I checked my look in a small mirror and we exited the room to join the others. We were soldiers, armed and ready. No tears, no pain.
Chapter Twenty-Three