Silencer, p.38
Silencer, page 38
Jake was shocked. Not at the power the girl had, which made perfect sense. Sleep was a weakness and both raiders and zombies would exploit it if they could.
He shrugged, after a moment, which was going to be invisible in the dark.
“A lot of people have things like that going on. Some of the people at the house are... special. I mean really, not just having a cool trick, like not needing sleep. That...” He went silent then, himself.
There was a soft sound from Molly.
“It... The sex thing. I didn’t get it at first. Not for a long time. Derrick told me, all of us, not to trust you. That you were probably gay and that we shouldn’t have sex with you. He got me to do a lot of other guys, since I was fat and kind of ugly. He told me that. I... Really, I should have told him to fuck off. I couldn’t though. I’d want to do that, and plan to tell him to screw off and then he’d get close to me and I... Just had to have him. He was disgusting and I still...” She laughed, softly. It was a sad, nearly sobbing sound. “I did stuff with him. Gross things. He stank and tasted bad and I did it all. In public the whole time. He kept telling me I was only good for sucking his dick and servicing his men. I just did it. That... Why? I should have just gotten with one of the other men. Or fuck it, I could have done all of them. Instead...”
Jake actually thought he had the picture there. For a moment he debated saying anything at all, then shrugged. It cost him nothing. Even if she wasn’t ready to hear the truth, lying seldom aided anyone.
“He had some kind of pheromone control over women. It hit nearly everyone at the house. Well, you girls. The men were fine. It didn’t impact Sammi, or Lois, for some reason. Sammi... That one makes sense. She’s special, and immune to that kind of thing, I think. I don’t get Lois.”
Molly got on the bed, and pulled him onto it, gently.
“That... fits, doesn’t it?” Her voice was soft, but not a whisper. An inside voice, however. She didn’t even sound upset with him saying strange things to her in the dark.
After a bit she went on.
“I sort of had orders. I had to do all of the guys in his crew, whenever they wanted, and I got to be with Derrick once every ten days. That... It was like being addicted to drugs. I never was, before. I kind of knew it was happening, but I couldn’t help myself. The few times I sort of tried to break away from him, he just told me that I either did what he said, or he wouldn’t let me suck his dick anymore. That worked. He didn’t even hug me or say anything nice at all. I just licked his balls and ass, then sucked him until he came.”
The talk was getting a bit gross, and Jake nearly mentioned it, when she touched him. His middle.
“I could... Look, I still don’t want to do anything with you. I was told not to. I can though. I could... here.” She rolled over, pushing Jake back, then worked at his clothing for a bit.
It was tempting to let her go on. In his head he started to spin a story about how it was good for her, even. That she was fighting the compulsion placed upon her, and he was helping her do it, by letting her go on. Only, of course, he knew that wasn’t the truth.
He’d just be using her, the same way that Holsom had. Well, not as badly, but it still wasn’t right. Not for him. He put his hand over hers.
“Later? You weren’t wrong, we’re on a mission here. Plus, I don’t want you to feel forced. Doing this, being willing to, is a great start. Now we need to get everyone else to fight against the impact of that effect. Was it really that strong?”
Molly moved back. At first he wondered if she was going to be mad at him, being rejected, even if that wasn’t what he’d just done. After a while she made a soft sound.
“It was... I can’t explain it. Not really. I would have done anything he told me to, just to be near him. Even if I felt like dying each day. I wanted to kill myself, but I couldn’t since then I wouldn’t be able to be near him anymore. You probably didn’t notice, but it was bad, for a while.”
After a moment, he cleared his throat, gently, the dark surrounding them both.
“I knew. We all did, on the cleaning crew. You feel better, now?”
There was a longer pause then.
“A little. A lot, to be honest. In the first days after Holsom ran off, I nearly died, I think. It was bad. Then, over a few months, I sort of slowly got better. I’d still suck his dick if he was here. Even if he said horrible things to me while I did it. That’s... I hate him.” She shook her head. “I also love him. I mean, like... Real love. I think about him constantly. I don’t want to. I just can’t stop myself.”
Jake winced.
“That sounds brutal. Well, I’ll help, if I can. I should get some sleep now. We can talk about this later?”
“Okay. Um, Jake?”
He smiled, hoping he wasn’t being kicked out of the room.
“Yes?”
“Thanks. For getting me through all of that stuff. All of us. It... I can’t do anything to pay for that. I can just do my part. Still, we can... I’ll do sex things for you. From now on. Whenever you want. I should have been doing that, all along. For all the guys. Are you sure you don’t want me to do something now?”
Jake nodded, even if he wasn’t certain of that at all. He knew what the part of right was, so nodded.
“Mission first. I need to sleep. Wake me up if you get tired or want a break.”
“Okay.”
Then, slowly, he drifted off. Waking whenever Molly moved. She got up, walking through the house they were staying in, several times. Once an hour, or so.
The trip back the next day went exactly as expected at first. They got up at first light, ate some bread that Lois had made, using real flour, with some of the apple conserve, which was what they'd taken to calling the cooked down brown sludge that happened when you just smashed and evaporated the water from the fruit.
Basically it became pure applesauce, then worked down to be denser and sweeter than that, even. After that treat, since they were already fully loaded, they started the slow slightly painfilled trudge, back to the house. It took a long time, because Rita and Molly couldn't move their cart, the lighter one with the fabric, nearly as fast as he and the guy he'd gotten or the other two could. The new woman may have been as small as Rita but she pulled her weight and more, not complaining or acting weak at all. Honestly, it was kind of clear the new lady was nearly as strong as Jake, or even more so. He noticed it, but simply winked at her when she saw him noticing it.
“No one is judging anyone here. A lot of people we know are a bit more than they seem. Don’t think you have to hide anything. Not now.”
The words got the woman to tighten, then nod.
“Got it. I’m a lot stronger now than I used to be. Lem... He’s just good at this stuff. I can’t really explain it.”
Jake nodded. Molly did too. She was the one who spoke.
“Nice. I don’t need to sleep anymore. Jake, what can you do?”
He lit up then, since it was hard to explain, really.
“Why, I have this sunny disposition and know that we’re all supposed to work together. That’s not nearly as cool as what you all can do. Rita?”
He didn’t expect much, from the tiny, birdlike woman. She spoke up anyway.
“I can feel things. Not like that new girl. Heather? I know when bad things are going to happen, kind of. Um... There.” She pointed ahead of them.
That meant they all went slow, which also meant they saw the police van, a big dark blue and white panel thing parked on the far side of the woods through the trees way before they got to it.
Jake felt genuinely pleased.
“Free ammo. Yay!” He was soft sounding about it. “Let’s move in a bit. Everyone be careful and hold to good noise discipline. I can feel the evil intent coming from these guys.” That probably didn’t take a power to notice. Lem nodded. Then they all moved in, pulling the carts still.
Men in heavy clothing herded slow seeming zombies out of the back of the large, flat sided van, the blue and black colored vehicle with police written on the side as if to advertise exactly who was attacking the innocent civilians. All of his people saw this at about the same time and came to a stop.
Silently. Nearly perfectly really.
It was the first time he'd actually seen it happen but they'd kind of suspected something like this was how it was done for a while. There were only six cops, or men at least, since they didn't wear police uniforms, just layers of heavy clothing. Like the cleaners did. It presented an interesting dilemma.
He thought he could get the police, or the seven zombies they had and were moving through the woods toward the house but he didn't think he could do all of them at once. The people with him had weapons, and while a lot of the zombies looked pretty fresh, they didn't have any of the leapers with them that he could tell.
Jake shrugged and gathered everyone around so he could whisper at them.
“Molly, I want you to take out the zombies. I have the police. Remember head shots people. Take turns and reload. Got it? Teamwork is key here. And remember, move to your own left. Don't let it confuse you. You have a lot of time here. Don’t let fear make you clumsy and you’ll all be fine.” He tried to sound light and happy about the whole thing but everyone looked scared.
Molly nodded at least.
That she seemed scared too was... wonderful.
Lovely really. It was so good that she didn't want to die anymore. Not like she had before. Now, suddenly, she just looked ready. Hard and like a warrior, not Suicide Molly at all.
He set up a flanking pattern for them and explained what to do again, then walked up behind the policemen, or whoever they were, until he stood no more that fifteen feet away. They didn't even notice him, the undead keeping them focused to the front.
That was incredibly handy, to be honest. He even had his nine aimed at the head of one of the men before they even had their weapons out.
Molly screamed. Loud. It was something she was rather good at. The zombies turned from their handlers and moved with best speed toward the vulnerable prey, making the cops curse and stare in that direction.
They seemed to have shotguns, so he'd have to be quick about the whole thing. The police weren't stupid, not about fighting. They were simply not ready for an ambush, and Jake, thanks to all the practice he'd had, didn't miss a lot of shots.
He had the first two down before the others even turned and caught the third as the man brought the weapon in his hands up to fire. It went off, leaving a line of burning pain across the side Jake's right leg mid-thigh.
He dove for the ground and rolled as the others fired at him, the patterns tight and lethal as they pumped round after round at him. Trying to shoot and roll was just going to waste ammunition so he didn't bother, wondering what the police were thinking instead. Probably that they were going to die.
If so, they were aware of the plan in play.
They were all on the same page then.
The men probably would have killed him about that time but the other shooting started, which made the cops all duck, scrambling for cover awkwardly, even though it wasn't for them. Two of them went down when they got distracted and tried to look. Jake picking them off from the ground.
Proving they were idiots.
They forgot to deal with the threat in front of them, closest to them, first. The last man tried to run, proving he was smarter than his friends. That just meant he caught a bullet to the back of the head.
Jake reloaded, switching magazines out and jogged over to the scene of the other fight, coming in at an angle to the rough line the others had set, not particularly wanting to be shot by mistake. Rita was trying to run away from a shambler instead of shooting at it, and Molly seemed to be out of ammo. Two of the shamblers were down though, and none of their people were dead yet, so in all, they were doing better than he'd expected.
Jake yelled, on purpose. Fighting to project.
“All right! Reload when they come for me, we'll yell back and forth like this, wait for me to take one out, then call out, got it? Don't answer yet! Just get ready, stay calm and relaxed. They can't take us this way as long as we all fight.” He smiled and shot not one but two of the things as they closed, removing the quickest of the bunch. No one said anything at all, busily resetting he hoped.
He got the third just as Molly yelled again.
“Got it! Head shots this time. Remember to aim for the head!” She sounded freaked but the advice was right. It was heartening. Jake hadn't really been sure the girl had been paying that much attention the whole time. Clearly, his own garbage had left gaps in his thinking about certain people. It was a thing he was going to have to correct.
Rita, little, skinny and clearly panicked jumped forward and fired at the first one, taking it under the chin, nearly removing the head altogether. Molly was more sedate in her movements but took the last one without hesitation.
Or at least Jake thought it was the last one, until he saw that the dowdy woman and her slow boyfriend were being approached by a walker. Honestly, Jake wasn’t certain, but he kind of thought it might have shown up on its own, rather than coming from the police van. The strong woman fired twice, her shotgun empty, then she started to visibly panic. Gasping and trembling. As the undead thing closed on her, Jake getting ready to fire, the slow man spoke gently.
“Back and to the left, let it come for me. It's all right. Back and to the left. Your own left. Aim for the head. We have all the time we need. They can’t take us if we stick to the plan.” He sounded... calm, steely. The dead guy, who had a bit of a gut on him and ragged work clothes on, re-aimed, going for Lem.
So he caught a load of shot to the face which took it all the way to the ground, the slow guy searching the world around him, one shot still left, and ready to fight.
Jake nearly wanted to cry again, he was so proud.
They had promise. None of his people even had to be beheaded.
A thing he decided wasn’t just a win, but something of a miracle.
Jake didn't wait, grabbing a machete from the tool loaded cart. He started to limp back over to the bodies and fell down. Which was annoying. The world went dark as he did it. Still, he chuckled a bit as he sat up, feeling a bit sick.
“Right. Sorry, I was hit in the leg. Not too bad. Just a couple of bird shot pellets, I think. Five. I almost forgot about it. Rita, do you think you can patch these jeans? The damage doesn’t look too bad.”
He sighed and shook his head a bit.
“Rita, would you get me something to tie this off with? Molly, start taking heads please. Um... You...” Jake had to think for a second to remember the slow guy's name again. He'd just had it too. Adrenalin would do that to you and he really did feel a bit jazzed at the moment.
“Lem? Would you help her with that please? The cops too, we don't want them coming back if we can help it, since they've all had that vaccine. They’re bound to be all surly and aggressive if they do.” All the zombies kind of were, unless they were so rotted they couldn’t act.
The thin woman squawked loud enough that Jake nearly shot her but she had her back turned and went quiet without noticing anything behind her at all. She scrambled to get to the cart looking for something to use as a bandage.
After a few minutes, he cleared his throat.
“Not to be needy, but... If you could hurry a bit?”
There was a pause, then the woman running over to him, holding a bit of cloth.
“Sorry! I didn’t want to use any of the good material, here, we can just use this. A bit of it. Let me... I need scissors.”
Ten seconds later the tiny woman was over to him, holding some cloth out. That had black dots on a slightly shiny white background. She probably had plans for it, since the piece she gave him was a bit small. That or thought it would clash with the jeans.
“Black and white go with everything, right? I shouldn’t need much. Here, let me tie this off. It’s not bad, really. Then, when we get in, someone gets to help me remove the pellets. No fair running off first thing. We have to unload the carts too. I want help with that, if possible.”
Then having a thought, he got the others to tie the carts in a line behind the police van, using some white nylon rope they'd brought. Then simply drove back. It wasn’t far, but he went very slow. The van was a stick shift, so he held it to first gear, stalling the engine twice, even if he sort of knew what a clutch was.
The bodies, all of them, had been left on top of the ground. They took the weapons and ammo taken as well as the boots, belts and anything that looked useful. Each of the men had a nice hunting knife, too. Probably for whittling. It wasn't as if these guys worked. Not as far as Jake had seen. They just sort of holed up and sent zombies at people.
Their parents must have been so proud of all they'd accomplished in life.
As strange as it seemed, Rita, who was slightly older than most the rest of them, in her thirties, moved him out of the driver’s seat after he stalled again.
“I can drive this. I had a stick shift for years. Nothing this big, but if we go slow...”
They crawled back home as slowly as they could. Jake didn't know what the carts could take, or the rope they'd used to set up the makeshift trailers. So they went slow, barely past the speed of a quick jog, which still had them pulling in a lot faster than they would have otherwise.
They were met with guns, being the police or seeming to be. So there were a lot of them but everyone realized who it was fast enough, and that Jake had a bloody rag on his leg. He'd lived through worse, except that they had to get the shot out if they could. Otherwise it would probably give him lead poisoning eventually or something. Tetanus sounded plausible, too. One of those kinds of things.
No one volunteered to help him, so he sighed.
“I need a bit of help here...”
He found a knife and sat on the ground outside to dig for the lead. That... was less than fun. In fact he had to fight screaming more than once, clamping his jaw as wave after wave of hot pain shot through his leg. Finally a small hand pushed the knife away.
