Silencer, p.31
Silencer, page 31
The girl nodded.
“Probably an unconscious survival trait that suppresses noise. Maybe making it hard to see her too. No doubt that’s why she was so successful in sneaking up on people in the dark and stabbing them. The act itself was done without art or science though, so it wasn't a trained thing. That, or she was so good that she knew to make it look haphazard. If that were the case she probably would have waited for a better time to attack you though.”
That got Jake thinking about other things that had happened over time. There were some weird ones, when he considered it.
He nodded.
“Holsom... some kind of pheromone thing? Or chemicals maybe? I’ve been wondering if he was brainwashing the women somehow, but there was no place to work. He could have had something like you do, with that mind control trick you’ve been using?”
“I think so. An Inc... Um... what we call an incubus. He's not a demon, obviously, or none of us would have likely survived. Whatever he had going on was clearly addictive too, so once he had that many women around all the time, in close quarters, they didn't have much choice but to seek him out for sex. Which also led to this latest fiasco. Too many men were left without partners in a mainly female dwelling for too long. The emotional strain nearly tore the whole compound apart. The women affected still seem under its grip. It's weakening but the second event, the takeover attempt? I think that was a residual effect.”
That was... interesting.
He could follow the chain now that someone else had pointed it out. A lot of it made sense. He walked over and patted her on the shoulder, which got a giggle. Then he started to walk into the house, with the smaller form, whatever she was, walking alongside.
“Well,” She demanded, as if feeling put out.
“Well what?”
“Aren't you going to at least ask?” Her look was adult, questioning and a little unbelieving.
He shook his head. She stared at him sideways as they slowly ambled and nearly reached the door.
“Aren't you the least bit curious about what you are?” Sammi fought a smile.
“Me?” He smiled back, snorted a bit and shook his head. “All right, I’ll bite, in a non-zombie way, what am I?”
“A very good man, Jake. And don't let anyone tell you different.” Then the girl giggled. It was nearly a happy thing. Like a joke he just didn't have the understanding for.
“Okay, tell that to the corpses of all the people I've killed. They'll be glad to know that, I’m sure.” He grinned though, trying for wry. It got the woman that looked like a kid, if that's what she really was, to chuckle a bit more, a smoky thing that sounded too dark for someone so young and fresh looking.
“There are different values of good for different worlds. For this one you're nearly perfect. People don't see it, because their own fear won't let them but you always do the right thing, even when it's hard or unfair to you. You have to kill, but you act with a sweetness of spirit the rest of the time that no one else alive can manage right now. That was one thing Dave got right. You're a guardian spirit. Okay, it's rare and special. Also, the truth is that you’ve pulled some things off that a normal man couldn’t. You’ve pushed yourself, and it clearly hurts, but you don’t give up or stop. You protect people who often don’t deserve it. That, plus the fact that you glow a bit. A nice golden light. I can see it, at least.”
She looked at him in a way that spoke of a lot more having been seen than her eyes could hold. A depth in them that looked ancient suddenly. Probably the whole really old thing. That or she was playing the most elaborate practical joke ever. Even if she was something spooky.
He wouldn't put it past her, after all, she had a lot of time to think of stuff like that if she wanted to. No TV or radio, no game stations or computers. Still, a clever kid could fool him if she worked at it.
He sighed.
“That’s not being a super warrior or having instant healing powers, is it? Kind of lame of me. I should have done something cooler. Remind me to set that up, for next time?”
There was a giggle from the girl.
“No doubt. The trick there is that you have an aura that compels those around you. A charming aspect that causes them to love you, even as they fear the whole world.”
Those words were almost too much for him, being clearly wrong, he rolled his eyes.
“I’m pretty certain that’s not true at all, Sammi.”
The kid tossed her hands out a bit, frustrated.
“I can see that as well. I think a lot of it is still the impact of Derrick Holsom. However he was doing it, his powers nearly got us all killed. You held us together. Sometimes with threats and force, which no one loves being the subject of, of course. At the same time, when you aren’t there, few people speak against you. That vote was... Off. From what I’ve been hearing at the time, it should have come out with you not only winning, but easily so. A few might have spoken against you, their minds being twisted and dark. That’s the danger of being what you are. The evil, those truly gone from the common fold, they’ll seek you out to harm you, if they can. Traditionally, when we’ve found one of your type, we’ve hidden them away from the world, to protect them.”
She shook her head then.
“Only here, we can’t do that. The best place I can offer is here. Even the house is too dangerous, still. Only, instead of dressing you in finery and writing down every word you utter, we need you to save us all. That’s not the normal pattern at all.”
After a moment, he nodded.
“Life is what we have in the moment. I think we all know that. Still, people hate me for what I’ve done. I can’t really go back.” It was a bit sad. Not that he was going to love the stench off of the people in the cold months. He didn’t want them to die, either.
Even if he was kind of certain they were going to.
The kid didn’t speak again, for a long time.
“They don’t, truly. Hate you. Something else is happening. I can see a pattern but not understand it. Something outside of the house is impacting us. It’s centered on those impacted by Holsom, of course. There could be some interaction with a few of them, of course. Whatever the man had going on, he hadn’t tried for me, personally. He even tried to seduce Lois, a few times, I think. It was subtle and didn’t work. Most of the other women weren’t able to resist him, which does seem to indicate that it was chemical in nature. Only... That shouldn’t have worked on Tipper if she’s a Val.”
It was an odd thing to consider and still possibly a game, so he shrugged and gave the kid a smile.
“Got it. Well, I’m planning to hold out here, for the time being. That... I know they need my help. I just don’t really want to be there. What you’re saying, it isn’t what I see at all.”
“I know that, Jake. Nate saw it, as did the others. That’s why they had that foolish vote. Americans are far too concerned with how the mentally slow and uninformed feel, I’ve noticed. Nate should have taken over early and have a half dozen of the worst killed. More people would be alive there now if he had.”
The kid, clearly deciding the conversation was over, turned and went into the woods. Unarmed. Then, if a zombie bite couldn’t kill her, and she healed anything like she’d claimed, then the danger wasn’t nearly as bad as it would be for him.
For his part, even if it was early, he went to clean up, then collected wood for the first half of the day. Stopping to eat, doing that twice before noon, since he really did have the extra food.
Burt didn't wake up for hours. Being injured really drained the energy from a body. Jake knew that from personal experience. Even little wounds added up. You didn't really notice it when you had plenty of food and a safe place to sleep but when every day meant possibly running for your life or fighting desperately to survive even for another few moments, you got the idea pretty quick. The world now was far more dangerous than it was supposed to be. More than humans were built to withstand. At least the modern ones.
On the shows, the documentaries that his Dad had liked to watch and pretend were interesting, the fake pioneers often talked about how they were always tired. How there was always more to do and they never really felt rested. He got that now but his world was a combination of that and a war zone... with a bad acid trip thrown in.
As he worked, picking up sticks, and breaking branches to add to his pile of burnable loot, he thought about the story he’d been given. It wasn’t a bad one, since, even if a little lame, he was the very good boy, or what have you, in Sammi’s tale. A man who did the right thing, and who was loved by all. That would have been great if it could be true.
Only, when he’d been younger, that honestly did sound a lot like how his life had gone. People had loved him and he’d been there for everyone around him, all the time. He’d loved Rachel and focused on her, but other girls and even adult women had approached him. Flirting and teasing gently. Clearly thinking he was worth spending time with.
That had all gone away. First into depression, of course. Then the world fell apart.
Also, Samantha was a kid. In looks at the very least. Her story made some sense, but she couldn’t be that old. Only, her eyes glowed, reflecting the sun. That one thing was kind of telling, he had to admit. The rest could be a lie, but... No. She’d been being honest with him. He could feel that clearly.
That stuff about Tipper and Vickie...
They weren't even that tall. Amazons were at least over six feet, he thought. That was from comic books, of course, so might not be the truth. Still, they were all described as all being six-four and brawny in the legends. Black, too. Or at least South American. Tipper looked like an in-shape college professor and Vickie looked... Pretty good actually. Like a cheerleader or pro-volleyball player. But her hair color was different from Tip's, being blonde. He hadn't compared their eye color, never having thought about it at all. They didn't look that much alike, honestly.
Tipper would have told him if she were special like that, he thought. Since it would have affected what she could do in a fight, and they'd been teammates. She’d been in charge of that cleaning team, and still was, he thought.
Then, she’d lied to him by claiming to be a lesbian, which did get him to consider that she might have kept other secrets from him as well.
She didn't seem that close to Vickie though. If anything she seemed closest to him and Dave, then Nate and Carl. Then, sisters and cousins didn’t have to be all that close, really. Being an only child, that kind of information was probably beyond him. The ideas filled his head and then emptied out a bit as he went to get some ripe apples. Yes he had new and interesting information, and things to think about, but winter wouldn't hold off just because of that.
He took his cart, hoping to get enough fruit for canning. He had a giant pot and lots of pickle jars from the factory in town. The police had abandoned it as far as he could tell.
That was too bad, since he really wanted to replenish his ammunition stash a bit more. He had about a hundred and sixty rounds for the nine-millimeter left, having found more on some dead police. Technically he’d killed them and then looted their bodies, but the end result was the same. He wasn't burning through the ammo but a couple of major attacks and he'd be down trying to take zombies on with an axe.
A thing that could work, if there weren’t too many of them and you got really lucky.
The apples were easy to get. Simple compared to almost anything else in his life. It took hours but there were seven trees in a pretty close space and he got a lot of bags of them. Those were old pillowcases mainly. Fifteen of them full. He had to go back to the little house and dump them in the barn before he went for the black walnuts that had fallen in another little mini grove. He didn't get as many of those, since they were still in their thick black husks, and those stained his hands and made them smell bitter. He didn't know for certain if that was how to get them but he did anyway. Just in case. If nothing else he could probably burn them once they dried. Nine full bags. Probably about four hundred pounds in all, he guessed. That meant a thousand plus pounds of apples. That was not at all bad for a day's work.
Now all he had to do was make sure they didn't go bad. Even he knew that the nuts were just pealed and dried or roasted. If they were edible. That would be the easy part really. The hard part was the apples. Those had to be saved somehow. Some could be canned, and maybe he could try drying some.
When he got back to his house the interior had changed a little in the kitchen and main bedrooms. He walked in to find Burt sitting at the kitchen table sipping at something. A cup that smelled like broth with more garlic in it. Given what they had around, that made sense. On the flat part of the stove, in an old cast iron pan, meat was being fried, with thinly sliced apples. Sammi stood working at it, with an intense look on her face. On the walls there were hangings. Just blankets nailed to the walls at the ceiling. Burt looked at him and grinned.
“Insulation. We don't have the material to do it at the house, not yet, but if you create an inch or so of dead air along a wall it will keep the room a lot warmer. Our young friend here did the work for us. She’s a very capable young lady, don't you think?” He looked proud of her and winked at Jake conspiratorially.
“Lois says she's indispensable in the kitchen, you know. She could run the whole thing if she wanted.”
The food was dumped out onto a large plate then transferred to smaller ones. Decorated with large sprigs of something green on each. Something brown and crunchy looking was on the plates too. Like slivered almonds but that couldn't be. Picking one up with his fingers gently, the fat from the meat coating it, making it moist and too hot to hold really, Jake tasted it. He'd never had one before but he got what it had to be anyway.
“Pine nuts?”
The little girl who wasn't young at all turned and nodded at him.
“Tis the season. They drop in November in these parts. You should collect up the cones now, before all the nuts fall out. They don't burn very hot but you can use the cones for heat in a pinch too, so you get double benefit for your labor. They taste like pine trees but they have calories and you can pretend they're gourmet. These things used to go for about twenty dollars a pound in the city. I got that much today in about two hours.”
That was amazing, having considered it at all in the first place. Not as cool as if a real little girl had thought of it, because experience made a big difference but still a good idea. Sammi seemed different, suddenly acting more confident and competent. That kind of seemed right, since being at Jake’s she could be in charge after all, or at least do whatever she wanted, without pretending to be a real little girl. Jake knew her story, real or not and Burt didn't really work closely with her at all normally. He might just think this was normal.
The man at the table asked about Jake's plans, the tone not all that casual about it either. He didn't say anything for a while but he did have some ideas.
Jake nodded, taking several bites before speaking.
“Tomorrow I'm going to get into town for more brick and maybe see if I can find some hand tools. For a forge. I'm planning to retrofit part of the barn for that, because I really don't have the ability to pull large timber alone yet. I can cut trees down but not load them onto the cart. I also need to work out an improved water pump. I hand drove a well, like we did by the cow pasture, and it actually works. But the hand pump I made leaves a bit to be desired. It takes about ten minutes to get single a bucket of water. I think the well is better than that and it's really just a failure of how I made the pump, the seals not being tight enough, and some air getting in maybe?”
The man shook his head and looked down at the table for a minute, so did Sammi. If she were acting he couldn't tell. It seemed like they both wanted to ask something but couldn't. Jake took a bite of slightly sour apple, sweeter for having been fried like this, he thought. It was a near thing that he wouldn't have noticed a year before, being used to refined sugar and being able to reject food if he didn't find it perfect. He hadn't even been a picky eater really, not compared to a lot of people. Things had just taught him not to be too prissy anymore. Back then, if a fruit fly had gotten in his food, he'd have thrown the plate of it away and gotten more.
Now he ate the fly and was thankful for the tiny bit extra.
The old man shook his head and looked up finally.
“It's not fair to you Jake, after those fools voted you away like they did but we need you back. Especially for the winter. Things started falling apart in days after you left. People stopped working, thinking that they had everything they needed for the winter but they didn’t, not by half, and they wouldn't listen to the rest of us. We're going to be locked up for months if it snows hard and we have babies on the way... Without someone keeping order it's going to be a disaster.”
He looked around at the room and shrugged, it looked more ragged and humble now, the wall hangings weren't exactly fine tapestries or anything. It was his though and he kind of had things set up. It would be hard, being alone all the time for months on end, he could feel that already. But here no one gave him strained and fearful looks. And if there were no women to possibly have sex with, there was also no rejection. No love for Jake at either place, certainly but this one didn't hold out any promise of it, and then stole it away. This was better, he decided.
Jake got what was being said, he was already the bogeyman there. If he went back, especially after having helped kill all those people the other day, it would almost certainly help keep things going. By giving people something to fear. That didn't take a genius to figure out. Why no one else had stepped up he didn't get.
“Why didn’t anyone else do that, when I was gone?”
Sammi answered, not seeming to care if she sounded odd to Burt or not.
“No one really could, except the cleaners. Dave is fantastic at what he does but if Nate hadn't managed him as closely as he had, he would have killed a lot of innocent people, too. Some people are just that annoying. Carl... He's a good fellow but he's soft natured when it comes down to it. Too, nice. I think he must have been very sweet before, don't you? He acts hard but he cries when people die. He hides it but it takes away a bit of the air of authority you have.” She ticked the people off on her fingers as she listed them off.
