Silencer, p.29
Silencer, page 29
Also like he might have realized that moving from Justine to Tammy was taking not just one, but several, steps down.
Tracy had apparently used Tammy as a club during the fight with Carley, too, or something, because the other woman looked a lot better than the woman begging on her knees. Even with the bullet hole in her head.
Tammy started crying.
“God, don't kill me! I didn't do anything. It was him, he made me do it!” Tammy screeched this at first but went silent when she saw Jake. For his part he still had his nine out but wasn’t pointing it at anything in particular.
Now, if she'd claimed that Bill had done it, forced her to participate in the takeover, or Holsom had, sneaking back or something, then Jake might have bought it but the woman stared at Clint. The only thing there was that the man, the whining coward, didn't deny it he just looked down.
“I just said we should throw in with the winning side. That's all.” He grinned, a manic and crazy looking thing. “I guessed wrong though, didn't I.”
Jake shrugged affably, a small smile on his face, and shot him.
He'd been too nice to people before, and one of them lay dead at his feet right now, her totally innocent unborn child with her. He did not feel good about that. Holsom's baby or not. Later it would hit him but for now he had to finish up.
“How about you Tammy. Do you have anything to say on your behalf other than someone giving you bad advice? Carley's a friend of mine, after a fashion, I suppose. So I kind of have to look down on attacking her in general. That's the rule with friends, isn't it?” Even if she did have her moments which might push a person into that kind of action. Still, you didn't do it. Attacking a person to silence their opinion was crazy.
The woman looked at him for a full fifteen second before speaking, her voice low and level, “I'll suck your cock. Any time. Day or night. I'll fuck you whenever you want. You can take me up the ass. Just let me live. Anything you want, anything. I’ll do it.” Her tone was panicked and he shook his head.
Not because it shocked him, or even embarrassed him, virgin or not. No it was just that she'd waited until now to make the offer. Besides, even Jake was smart enough to realize she didn't really mean it. Women would say anything to stay alive.
In fairness, he reflected, almost anyone would in a case like this, facing almost certain death. He didn’t even blame them for it.
Still, he rolled his eyes a bit.
“You couldn't have said that two months ago could you? Here, I know, let's put it to a vote. Anyone that thinks we should let her live so that I can finally get some, raise your hand.” He looked around his left hand raised halfway, a mock hopeful look on his face. No one else did it though. It was the closest thing to a real offer he'd ever had.
Not that he was bothered by the lack of support, this time. Truly, he probably needed to not tease a woman he might be about to kill.
“Sorry, it doesn't look good. Too bad. You might have been redeemable.” He started to pull the trigger.
“Wait!”
A call, too loud by far, came from the house door, it stopped, so he didn't even bother pointing a weapon at the woman who spoke.
Carley. Her hair was shorter, showing maybe an inch of curls all over her head. It actually looked good on her, as thin as she was now. Sporty.
Jake smiled at her, not wincing at what he saw there. Her face was a mass of bruising at least as bad as Tammy's. He raised his hand in a half wave as she jogged over, a weapon in her own hand. She didn't smile or speak until she was nearly on top of the circle of the dead and dying. Jake expected her to shoot Tammy in the head, for beating her but instead she giggled softly. It also had a maniacal edge to it.
Which seemed to be some kind of new trend he'd missed, being away like he had been. Laughing like a bad movie villain. It sounded like fun, actually. He decided to try it out, later.
Carley spoke clearly enough, even if she had a nicely swollen lip on the right-hand side of her face.
“We all make bad choices sometimes, don't we? She fell in with a bad crowd. I think she sees the error of her way now. We should give her a second chance. If she agrees to abide by all the rules, work hard and not do this kind of thing again. That... it worked with two of the three women from before, didn't it? Tammy isn't even pregnant, so there won’t be any hormone craziness.”
Jake shrugged and looked at Nate, who just stared at the girl on the ground. Others came around and listened from a ways off. Since there were fourteen dead, no one wanted to chance being number fifteen for the day. That, given the world they lived in, was wise of them.
They needed to get Carl into a bed, probably in quarantine, and get him some real care, if they could. Jake ordered it as if he still lived there and several people came to carefully carry the large man inside.
Lois didn't say anything much but nodded at him.
“Thank you Jake. This... It had to be done.” The tone was firm and a little stiff. Since the woman was a resolute pacifist, Jake thought it was awfully big of her to thank him. What he and Dave had done was the opposite of peace. Not war, but total mayhem, if of a desirable sort in that strange and possibly evil world they’d all found themselves. Then she went to look after the injured cleaner.
Vickie walked over carefully. She hadn't come out for the killing but then she hadn't fought against any of them either. She looked nervous but that wasn't a problem if no one made it one. He'd never had any problem with her. He'd never asked her to have sex, given her history but she hadn't also hadn’t insulted him by shooting him down before he could say more than hello either. Really she'd been about the nicest of all the women there, the whole time, as far as that went.
She hesitated and spoke softly.
“I held my people back. It was my order. I didn't know what way things were going to go, and I couldn't afford to let us be weakened any more. I know I should have acted but...” She shrugged.,
So did Jake.
“Meh...We had it. No one even got scratched. Anyway, unless you need me for anything, someone should take out that super-zombie and cart the bodies away. I brought some stuff, bedding, and things. Some baby stuff near the bottom, that I've collected. A few animals for dinner if you hurry. Fresh. Well, I should be getting back home. I have guests... and I need to make up for the work I lost today. Later. I'll send the others back when they're ready if you don't come for Sammi first.”
Giving a half wave he turned and started walking. At least he hadn't been hurt this time, which made a pleasant change. His boots, black and formerly owned by someone who'd been wearing a police uniform that had a name tag that said Thomson on it, fit well and didn't rub through the thick socks. It had gotten cool outside finally. He'd picked up a lot of clothing and coats in his scavenging, figuring that bundling up was better than freezing if he had to go hunt or collect wood in the snow. He'd walked for nearly half a mile before he realized that Tammy was following him.
Jake gave her a look, eyebrows raised.
After all, they'd seemed to have forgiven her, so there was no reason to be following him around. Plus... she’d been following him for that long without him knowing it. It was like her feet didn't make any noise on the ground. Jake's did and he was trying to be quiet. Everything around the hook-nosed woman was silent, too. Her clothing rubbed together, but made no sound. The grass, sticks and leaves under her feet were silent. It was clearly not normal. Some form of magic, or skill at a level that he doubted the woman would be able to manage on her own. She was one of the inept people of the world.
Yet, there it was. The woman carrying a sense of nothing around her. It wasn’t just being quiet, either. The feeling of a person being there simply wasn’t. He couldn’t even smell her, and he could, earlier, the woman not being all that tidy.
She didn't say anything or even look up.
So he shrugged. Honestly, he didn't have a high opinion of her but she could help with Burt. Unless she was the killer. He doubted it but he'd keep an eye out just in case. The idea that a girl, woman really, couldn't be a killer was ridiculous. Especially if she was some kind of magical ninja in her spare time.
It was a pain to think about, but he nodded. It was possible, if she were there alone with him, that the woman could start stepping up and working, instead of stealing and making trouble. On those apples and walnuts to start. Whatever else they could find before it all died or started to rot. If she wouldn't work, then he could kick her out. Possibly at night. It seemed to him that she'd voted for him to leave. It made the current situation a little ironic. Or maybe not, if she managed to fit in at his place. After all, that one, painful vote had led to him finding something else. Things were better for him now. Maybe they would be for her too. If she wanted it. Jake wouldn't even hold her to her promise of sex, since that was obviously just her trying to stay alive, not an actual offer.
Which was fine enough. Honestly, even if he wanted her to live, there was something wrong with the woman. The eerie silence she moved in for one thing. He ignored that. After all, it was probably something wrong with him that caused it to seem to happen, not her at all. Hallucinations were a thing, and he’d had more than his share in the last months.
He spoke gently. Being polite and kind. More so than probably felt right to him, or the woman behind him. It was how he’d want to be treated, if everything had gone wrong in his life, after all. That had, well and truly, taken place for Tammy that day.
“I’ve mainly been hunting, gathering some fruit, and collecting firewood. Um... Just to be clear, you can come to my place, and I don’t expect you to do anything sexual at all. I mean, that would be fun, but... Yeah. It’s not expected or part of the deal. What is, of course, is that you have to work. We can’t survive if we don’t. This... I got late start on things.”
She didn't say anything in response to the words, but her body posture suddenly looked more relaxed.
“So, really, there’s a lot of meat already. We can eat all winter. I mean, if you want to hang out with me but the work can't really stop, because I got such a late start. But... Look, I don't really know you, so I'll just say this... Pull your weight, and if you want to be on my team, be on my team. Full out, and all the time. Got it? You can turn around and go back right now. None of those people is a killer except Dave and you've lived with him for months. Heck he's thirteen, throw him a couple hand jobs or flash your breasts at him and he'll probably be your best friend for life. They really will take you if you go back.”
She shook her head.
“I... haven't done well so far. I was kind of a spoiled bitch before, and I let that mindset keep going. This might work better for me. I know you'll kill me if I fuck up too much. I can leave and maybe have a fallback there if I can't hack it with you. It could be worse. At least you bother to bathe regularly. It makes going down on a guy way more fun.” She walked with her face hidden behind her hair.
Jake blushed then.
His face actually grew warm. She was pretending that she intended to do things with him like that. Only, something felt off. It was a lie, of course. What she thought he wanted to hear. Except what he wanted from her was for her to do her best. To be a good person. It... She wasn’t intending to do that. He understood that, suddenly, and with a lot of force behind it. Everything in his mind lit up, forcing him to be wary. His body kept walking, seeming relaxed, as if he believed her.
Jake simply didn’t. He, something inside of him told him to be careful. That he was in actual danger. From Tammy. It was a fight not to blink in disbelief, given how beaten up looking she was in the moment. Still, he knew, without a doubt, that this was a woman who wasn’t just claiming some things to win him over.
Her intent was... Evil. It rippled off of her, tainting the air around her.
Her voice was bemused seeming.
“Clint was spotty that way at best, I wasn't looking forward to mid-winter with him. With any of them. That place is going to reek with all those unwashed bodies being that close.” She sniffed and giggled, sounding younger than her squarish face looked.
She had to be in her thirties. Not that it mattered now. Life span was measured in how long you lasted after the announcement, not how long you'd lived before. The rest was just window dressing. Hair, clothes, looks. They mattered but a lot less than a warm house and food. And bathing apparently. That one was real enough.
He chuckled a bit, still keeping his attention on the woman.
“Well, I have a tub and a water heater, enough for a full bath, two even if we share the water. I mean half a bath full each, not at the same time. It doesn't have a direct pump yet and the one I made kind of sucks but we have Burt at my place, so we can see if he can give us some hints. I doubt we can manage a windmill yet, but I have a tank that we can use to make a cistern, you know, raise it up and feed it into the house so there will be running water inside. It will suck pumping it in the winter but we can only do what we can. If I can find some good hand tools I could do a lot more. I haven't found any yet.”
Something made Jake tense just a bit as he spoke, some bit of body movement that didn't belong in the woman following him. A sense of darkness coming from her, making her into a shadow. A real one. It was silent. The whole world suddenly was. Totally so, with no rustle of clothing, with no sound of air passing around her. It spoke of dead things to Jake's mind.
The knife she had hidden on her, near the back of her jeans, swung effortlessly at his back. It was a long silver and black weapon. The move had a smooth and practiced feel to it, which kind of looked pretty. He saw it, the last half of it, as he turned and shot her in the throat. He wanted to roll his eyes at her but didn't. That would be too rude. Uncouth and lacking in kindness. Not that Tammy was going to care. Not now.
She gasped and stared at him instead. He didn't shoot her twice since he'd wasted twelve bullets that day already. Instead he stood and waited for her to die. It took a while, so he chatted with her for a bit.
“You know, you could have just gone along with me and tried that in my sleep. Isn't that the way you've all been doing it? Or stayed at the house with the others. Really, I'm not sure what your point was here at all. Just to make my day a little less bright? And here I thought we were going to be friends. Anyway, mind if I borrow your knife to behead you?”
She gasped at him, a low gurgle. Bubbly with a hint of red foam from both the hole in her neck and her mouth, meaning he'd hit the air way. That meant she drowned in her own blood. That sounded horrible. It wasn’t what he’d have wanted for anyone. Not even her. Her deep purple tank top was getting red and her shoes were too little for him but might fit Sammi or someone else, so he started to take them off of her. She wet her pants then, which got him to laugh.
“Relax, I'm just stealing your stuff. I may want to get laid but we're at least half a year away from me being so desperate I'd try that with a dying woman. Too bad though, that you had to attack like this. No matter how bad I turn out to be in bed, it almost has to have been a better option than this. Or, you know, you could have just gone back. Really, not trying to be a dick here but almost anything you could have done would have worked better, you know that? Well, you're almost done now. Have anything to say?”
She mouthed some words, they were familiar enough that he got it, even though no sound came from her mouth.
“Fuck you.”
He smiled and waited, knowing that would be the last things she'd see. Then he took her head off and walked to his house for a shovel. After the burying was done he went back and explained everything to Sammi and Burt. Leaving in the part where Tammy offered herself to him. That part was probably not appropriate for a child but Sammi didn't seem to mind overly. Lots of people had sex at the house, even with her in the room. They kind of had to, given the way things were set up. Innocently enough she went into a fairly long story about how loud Heather and Randy got.
Regularly. With great vigor and porn worthy dirty talk, apparently.
Jake just nodded and tried not to be upset at Sammi about that. The kid couldn’t know about the rest of things after all. Not unless Heather had told her.
Burt did, or at least understood that it wasn’t the right thing for a little girl to be covering, and he tried rather valiantly to shush the girl several times but nothing came out. Not loud enough to get her attention. A low hiss that could have been confused with his breathing. Except it wasn't. Sammi smiled at him and grinned.
“People were throwing their pillows at them because you know, we can't yell without calling the undead down upon us. This was after you were gone but everyone still tried to follow that rule. Dave said he'd shoot anyone who broke it but then they voted his gun rights away, so he couldn't fight them. Without a weapon he's just like me or Ken. A victim to be abused and controlled. Until he got a weapon back. He shot Bill in the head you say? I'll have to send him a thank you note. That's only polite after all when someone does you a good turn.”
She winked at him and tucked Burt's blankets in around him a little tighter, then went to make a stew. Without hesitating visibly at all, she went outside and collected food from the woods. Taking about twenty minutes to find some roots. Wild garlic and a few leaves and roots that she washed in a bucket of water and then cut up. Describing what she did to him carefully.
He paid intensely close attention to the plants that were being presented. These particular bits of greenery had been growing outside his front door, not a hundred feet away, and he'd never even realized they were there. Bits of food that he hadn't known how to use, before. The girl just chattered softly, which was an almost sing song thing. Lulling. It was relaxing and it didn't require a lot from him, just occasional agreement or sound indicating he listened, which he did, not being a jerk.
Something was a bit off with what she was doing, however. He was honestly relaxed and felt good about her, unlike what had happened with Tammy at the end. Where she’d tried to vanish from the world. This time, there was no sense of evil. The girl felt like Sammi, from the house. Even as she acted like an adult. An old one, at that. He had to shake himself, more than once, as her words nearly sent him to sleep. It was powerful, as an effect. Making it hard to focus.
