Terms Mystique: Z Is For Zombie 9 Read online

  She looked a little surprised at the idea. “I could. Maybe I will. What’s your

  name?”

  “Henry.”

  “I name it that,” Cadlac said.

  Henry and the others had them sit down. They wanted to find out if these were lost children or real bandits and more about them. They were curious. Stevie watched them as if they were a sociological experiment, and in a way, they were.

  Cadlac saw Georgie’s hair and patted at her own.

  “Why did you try to rob us?” Randy asked.

  “Hungry,” that was Ford, the teen boy.

  “We have food if you can answer some questions and tell the truth. You know what truth is?”

  “Dunno.”

  “You best try.”

  Cadlac snickered, her teeth brown stubs, “Shot with gun. Said give me food.”

  “Where’d you get the boots? And cuffs?” Cory asked.

  “Why you dark like that?”

  “Oh, great. They don’t know about black people? We have done been set back another two hundred years,” Cory said as he stomped away.

  “He’s black ‘cause we burned him for not telling the truth,” Henry whispered.

  The children looked at one another with big eyes, and Stevie suppressed a grin, hiding her face against Pak’s arm.

  “Where did you get the stuff?”

  “Trade.”

  Randy snapped his gun barrel against Cadlac’s head again, “Try again. You’re lying. What the hell would you have to trade?”

  “Poo paw.”

  “Huh?”

  Cadlac made a motion with her hips as if she were having sex. “Poo paw. Men like it.”

  “Ain’t no man give you all that for your poo paw,” Henry snapped.

  Ford growled, aware this was some sort of insult.

  “Whose baby is that? That yours?” Henry asked about the child missing her arms.

  “Mine. That Baby.” She rubbed her belly. “This my baby.”

  Ford reached over to rub her belly, too.

  “They’re inbreeding,” Henry said.

  “Who had the stuff before you?”

  “They not needing ‘em. They get some more. They men, ” the woman said, snarling. “We sees them and creps up and then says howdyroo nicet meet you and wanna poo paw for food.”

  “What did they say?”

  “They say come along so is they’ feed us and teched us to ‘tect selfs. Say theys gotted more and fix us. Says we chillen.”

  Cory sighed, “Children. They were offering to help you and give you better.” He had returned to listen.

  “Theys gots more best, seem to me,” the woman said.

  “They share easy,” the teenaged boy said, “we gets stuff.”

  “What’s the little one’s problem?” Henry asked, eying the pitiful thing.

  “Borned that away. Lossa arm on ‘cause see-ma fell.”

  Cory tilted his head, “See-ma?”

  The teen boy rolled his eyes. He pantomimed and pointed until the rest nodded.

  “Cement,” Henry nodded finally. “What’d you do to the men that tried to help you?”

  “Nota trying to help. Trying steals us,” the boy argued, “killed ‘em and

  tooked it. Runned away so not stoled.”

  Cory pointed, “They have no ammo for the rifle, so he uses it like a club.

  The bullet they fired was the only one they had or the only one they hadn’t lost.

  There is no more ammo for that Colt. The cans of food have a fairly new expiration date; they must have stolen the food and water, the guns and ammo, and the boots recently.”

  “You’re gonna strip off every bit, down to the skin and drop everything.

  That’s your punishment for stealing. If you make it on your bare ass, then so be it.

  If you don’t, then that there is karma,” Henry told them.

  “Cadlac, you may be old enough to have some memories of before, but I

  think someone raised you. Where are the older people who were with you?”

  “Bit. Et. Gunned trying to get stuffs”

  “Were they stealing and shooting people, too?” Henry made a guess.

  “Uh-huh. Gunned and dead.”

  “Well, I am right sorry you don’t have an education or much language, and I am sorry you have had a hard life, but stealing and killing ain’t right. I am pretty certain that you know that but have ignored it.

  “Strip off what you have on. I’ll have mercy, but like I said, ‘you will leave here as you were born, bare-ass naked into this world.’ ”

  The thieves began to strip after Randy threatened to use the gun handle as

  a club to hit them. They glared daggers.

  “What’d you do to the men?”

  “Kill ‘em,” said Cadlac.

  “Et ‘em,” said Toya.

  “Huh?” Randy asked.

  The woman kicked at the little one, telling him to shut up. “Stop your

  yammerin’.”

  Henry stopped the strip and asked his people to do a full search of the

  preteens, the young woman, and the children, looking into pockets before

  they allowed them to drop their clothes and other items.

  Cory picked up something inside the grimy shirt that one of them had already dropped: a broken necklace that Ford had just yanked off, along with his raggedy shirt; he hoped it would not be noticed in the piles of junk.

  “What the hell?”

  The preteen, Stang, waggled fingers at Cory who frowned and then returned the brownish-ivory-looking-necklace to the pile; Toya hooted and jeered. It was a necklace of finger bones.

  “Got tools here made of bones it looks like,” Randy said, “humans?”

  “Human, animals, all go arrrggghhhh,” Stang laughed, making his face even uglier.

  “Shut up. You so reparted,” Cadlac said as she hit Stang hard with her fist,

  knocking him to the ground. He cowered.

  “It’s retarded and not a word used anymore. If you mean stupid, then, you

  are not ready to accept help or to have a better life; however, it would be wasted anyway. For murder, theft, and cannibalism, I hereby sentence you to death,”

  Henry said.

  “Huh? Be a Zzzzz,” Cadlac said and tilted her head, curiously.

  “You’d rather be a Zed than be shot?” Randy asked.

  “Go Arrrggghhhh,” Stang laughed again. “Eat more.”

  Disgusted and tired of wasting time, Henry raised his gun: shot Stang

  and then Cadlac. The others with him silently helped, by shooting the others in the head; there was no joy in this.

  They pulled the bodies to the side and stacked them. Henry took a piece of board, wrote on it, and set it beside them.

  Thieves, Murders, Cannibals

  “I don’t think those kind can be fixed. They are like cave men,” Randy said.

  “Naw, cavemen didn’t eat each other and do evil. I’m saying those had

  parents who were just as bad, and I bet they were just as immoral. It’s a bad line, it is,” Henry said.

  “You get a bad sort, and it runs right down the gene pool. You know what I mean. They were from a bad line of people.”

  “And then they get bad home training, “Cory added. “You know someone

  taught them something, or if not, those born after the infection could not have

  survived. So they had parents of some sort. I think the problems are genes and

  no training. That Cadlac wasn’t as dumb as she acted. She was crafty.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter, now. They won’t be robbing or eating or killing.

  Can’t help them poor men who were killed, but their spirits can be at peace.

  We’ll take the guns,” Henry said as he got his people back in the vehicles.

  He couldn’t help but wonder what the men must have thought about as

  they were killed, probably brutally, and after the
y had offered help. He had seen his share of people who seemed to need help but instead needed a hole in the head more.

  The road was safe again for now.

  Stevie, fifteen years old, was still excited over the events. Since she had

  finished her real training at Port A, this was her first real adventure in the

  World That Once Was.

  Her parents almost had not allowed her to go as part of the team, but then,

  they had admitted that her older sister, Hannah, had been battling long before she was even thirteen. Stevie’s twin, Georgie, had no interest in following the highway, but Stevie was fascinated by everything she saw and more than a little proud she had been included.

  She had seen pictures and heard stories of people traveling in airplanes, but seeing one, even if it were burned and rusted rubble, was great. That a road

  could be so long and go on so far was amazing, too. She didn’t remember much

  about the trip to Port A five years before, so this would be new adventure for her.

  Her best friend, Lexie, was the Governor of Port A, but her parents,

  Mark and Misty, were not supportive of their going either. Lexie reminded

  them that her mother, Misty, was just fifteen when the infection came;

  Misty had become a great marksman and fighter, never having had a choice.

  Lexie was not only proud that her young mother had been a real warrior

  who had helped form settlements, but also was a little embarrassed that her

  mother and her father had married that same year. Her mother having had a

  sixth baby was also humiliating.

  Their parents said that the world back then was very different.

  Lexie and Stevie knew the stories about when people had computers, about places where people could drive through to get ‘already-made food’ (called take-out), and about stories that were acted out in a box called a television, sounded like fun. But the first years of the Z years were horrific and ended badly for most

  people during the time.

  The girls were seeing the old world, well, the second version, not the good-

  old-days’ world. They wanted to know what it would be like to see the real hardships before they settled down to the normal life in Port A.

  “Why are people that way?” she asked Cory.

  “You heard…bad line or bad training…probably both. Some people tried

  to do better and to help with the world, and others wanted things for free and

  enjoyed doing evil.”

  “Were people like this before? Mom says some were.”

  “Sure they were. We had those who were hungry and homeless but just some.

  Back then, a person could get food if he were starving or could get help

  if he were homeless. Now, it feels as if half need help, but no one can help since we would be in the same spot.”

  “If you were that hungry, could you get to that point: Where you killed and ate someone?”

  Cory stared at the road a long time, and Stevie knew he was giving the idea a lot of thought. “I would like to say I could never do it. I am going to say ‘no’: that I wouldn’t do anything like that ever, but that’s me. Stevie, I don’t know what I

  would do if I had a baby who was starving. I hope I could take my life and that of

  my family before I did that to someone.”

  “You aren’t evil, Cory. You wouldn’t do it.”

  “Well, there are those who do it because they are evil and lazy and want

  everything to be easy; then, there are those who are just desperate and lose

  their minds. I guess we have to hope we never become so scared and afraid.”

  “Could you kill yourself if you got tired of seeing all the bad that’s out

  there? Mama said some people didn’t like it, so they shot themselves or took

  some pills.”

  “No way. I’ve seen and been through some really bad sh…stuff; I have

  never thought about killing myself. Ain’t nothing so bad that it might not be

  some better the next day. I’m a positive person,” said Cory.

  “I guess so.”

  “I know so. We’re close now,” Cory said.

  Lexie grinned. She was glad they were changing topics because that one

  made her nervous.

  Cory was the main reason her parents had allowed her to come along and

  Stevie, too. They all thought Cory was very responsible and smart; the girls said

  he was really cool for an older adult. He was at least thirty-five and looked

  almost archaic, but he did tell great stories of a time before that included robots.

  Cory said he had seen zombie movies, which had some things right and some

  events incorrect. In those movies, a doctor didn’t develop the infection; it was a man named Romero who cured people and saved everyone.

  The girls didn’t know why the Romero man had sent zombies to kill people.

  Cory said it was for ‘entertainment value,’ which was even more confusing.

  It was even stranger when they had a world without monsters, yet they felt

  a need to pretend they had them and to make them up. It would be wonderful to have the ‘good old days’ back.

  “Hannah will be so happy to see us,” Stevie said. “I’ve missed her.” She

  touched a bag under her seat that contained gifts for her sister from their

  parents Kimball and Beth.

  “She’s such a legend,” Lexie agreed. “Hannah is a warrior.”

  Cory suppressed a laugh as the girls told the same stories about Hannah’s

  exploits that they had many times over on this trip. Each time, the girls embellished the number of zeds or bandits that Hannah faced. Cory was entertained.

  “She rode a horse and traveled everywhere, fighting bandits and Zs, but not

  anyone won against Hannah; yet, all she had was a katana. She was just thirteen

  years old when she chopped a man’s head off because he was a perv,” said Lexie.

  “She never was scared, either.”

  “She went all the way to the ocean without a car or anything but a horse,” added Lexie.

  Cory laughed. “You’re silly. You wanna know about heroes? Your parents

  were the most bad-ass warriors I have ever seen.

  Mark was always tough and a good shot. And little Miss Misty, she was always like a momma bear. Beth took on everyone in her way. And Kimball, my

  God, the man was unstoppable; Len and Mark and he were the driving power for building the settlements.”

  “Right,” Stevie rolled her eyes.

  “You think people are kidding when they tell the stories? Beth was the one

  who thought of settling Hopetown. They had to clear it out. And they faced

  The Reconstruction Army, a whole army and won.

  They faced maybe five thousand of those things. They went in and got people and helped them to safety. And when it began, they were the ones who made the first stand against raiders, bandits, Zs, and anyone else in the way.”

  “I can’t imagine their doing stuff like that. Aunt Julia and Uncle Matt

  were still bad-ass, ummm, tough, I mean,” Lexie blushed at being caught saying

  a curse word.

  Cory chuckled, “I’ve heard worse words from your own mamas and daddies. Oh, Jules and Matt are part of the original group, too, and they are

  amazing. But the toughest was always Len. He taught everyone how to shoot

  and to fight. He was a Marine. George and he were the reasons people

  gathered into our settlements.”

  “Georgie is named for him,” added Lexie.

  Cory nodded. “I knew him. He was a fine gentleman. Len is more and more

  like him these days.”

  “They tell stories, Cory, but what was he like, do you understand? When I

/>   asked, they tell me stories,” said Stevie.

  Cory thought again. “He was a man who always wanted to protect:

  kept a few secrets for security or allowed people to do what they wanted to do, or shot a gun, but he always was about keeping people free and about people always trying.

  I think he was a man who wanted to live in comfort and peace, but when

  that didn’t happen, he didn’t complain because he didn’t trust other people to

  make sure we stayed free and kept hoping. I think he was about duty. He was

  responsible.”

  “You aren’t answering,” Stevie complained.

  Lexie nodded, “What was in his eyes?”

  “Ahhh. Gotcha. He had sadness for his friends who died. He had a stubborn

  set to his face, and it didn’t waver. He lit up when children were around, and

  anyone around could see he never grew up in some ways: he liked playing

  practical jokes and acting silly. He enjoyed watching people working hard together

  and rebuilding,” interjected Cory.

  “Was he tough?”

  “No. He wasn’t tough like Len. He was tough in here.” Cory took a hand to

  thump his chest over his heart. “He wasn’t the smartest or the best shot, but he

  was very loving. He was more like a dad, wanting his children to believe in Santa,

  look at the stars, and dream.”

  Stevie was quiet at first as she considered that.

  “That’s pretty, Cory,” Lexie said, “thanks.”

  “Mom says he always had a soft spot for Hannah. He always respected

  Len. He saw through the tough and to the heart, I think,” Stevie replied.

  “Pretty nifty gift, huh?” Cory drew himself out of the sad place and smiled.

  “Now talk about happy things so I don’t get all sad.”

  “We’ll talk about boys,” Lexie teased.

  In Jefferson, the group was met by guards with narrowed eyes and carried rifles at the ready. The farmhouse and land they were going to visit were off of the highway, behind a formidable roadblock of trucks, old tires, metal: all the junk of the old world.

  If anything, it made Cory a little sad to see how people still needed walls

  for protection, but he also was impressed with the amount of hard work that

  people had done to this place. These people carved out a safe place and were a

  testament that stealing things and killing were not the way to remake the world.