Day 335 - Untitled Zombie Story Chapter 4 - (1,231 words)

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UNTITLED ZOMBIE STORY

By Wayne Webb

Chapter 4

It was the better part of the day gone when the graves were dug and filled in with bodies and dirt. In deference to Rusty, at least in some way to try and understand the position he was in and perhaps to see where he was truly aligned, his brother was given a solo grave. In deference to Margaret the two men and the one woman were buried separately, a logic she could not voice nor begin to justify, but it was little difference in the end.

The graves were shallow, but deep enough to not have the bodies rise with a short spell of bad weather or digging animals. Each grave was three to four feet down; the deepest dug by Rusty until he reached the respectful depth he felt was appropriate. The shovels were obtained from behind the barricade, sadly it was not the first graves that had been dug at this site, and Rusty freely admitted that since he and his brother had joined this troop they had killed at least seven people, and rusty himself had killed one.

He did not claim it was self-defence, nor did he beg forgiveness for his crimes, it was just the way it was and there was no changing that.  He willingly answered every question that was asked of him, who he killed and why. What stopped him from turning on his brother, which was obvious to James and Derek at least, they too were brothers.

The sun was setting and it was time to break up and move on, in the afternoon no more vehicles came along the road, which was not unusual for the stretch of road. They had a base not far from the bend where the trap was set and they would lie in wait there with a view to the road.

It was time to make a decision on what to do, Ben was of two minds and he took his group aside to talk about it leaving the two brothers who had come to find them and Rusty to wait in the clearing, unarmed but unharmed.

“What do you think?” Ben nodded to Reid who stood with his hands on his hips waiting to have his say.

“Rusty and James should stay, Derek can come with us. If he wants to without his brother.” He moved his hands emphatically with his words, underscoring the definitiveness of his opinions; he had been stewing them through the afternoon.

Ben took in the opinion thoughtfully then looked to Will.

“None of them. We don’t need them and I don’t trust them. But if they come? Well we keep them unarmed until we’re back. We should not move forward with them if we take them on.” His assessment was not as firm as Reid’s had been, there was self-doubt in the way he spoke, none of it sounding unassailable.

“I like the brothers and they could help moving forward, but perhaps we should try before we buy? Maybe take in another town on the way? See how they operate before we tell them about the mission?” 

“What Mission?” Margaret whispered, louder than she should have.

“Mom? Be quiet please. I need to think.”

Ben was musing his own version of what to do when Margaret stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. “Ben Johnson! Are you not going to ask your own mother’s opinion?”

“Not if I can avoid it, no.” Ben said but then threw up his hands and sighed, “What’s your opinion, Margaret?”

“Do you have to be so ill mannered to use my given name? Did I not teach you better?”

Ben held his mother by the shoulders and looked directly at her, the seriousness of his words being underlined in that gesture. “If you want your voice to count in the team? You have to be part of the team. Which means following the leader. That’s me. This is not about power or control or respect, okay? This is about acting as a cohesive unit and being an effective team.”

“Fine.” Though she did not sound convinced or fine with things.

“Margaret. What is your opinion?” Ben removed his hands from her shoulders and folded them across his chest and waited for her response.

“Kill the boy on his own. Let the other two join us or leave, but don’t let the other one go.”

“Jesus Margaret, that’s fucking cold!” Zane was shaking his head, not caring if the others heard or not. He was shocked to hear such a harsh sentence being delivered so calmly, almost rationally.

“Mom?” Ben was also surprised, she had been through a lot before he found her again and he knew she had seen and probably done things to survive that he definitely did not want to know about. She was also still his mother, infuriating and annoying, ultimately still a parent trying to run her child’s life regardless of his ability.

This was different, there was a hard rationality in her words and he could tell it was not a split decision, she had thought long and hard about it and had reached this decision, this concept had been thought on for a few hours and she had accepted the weight of her words before she used them.

“Don’t you mean Margaret?” she hit back at him with, even in the moments like these where seriousness overlaid everything like a fine film of grime and filth, there was the chance to score a point and tip the balance in her favor.

“Don’t be facetious Margaret. Tell. Me. Why?” Each word was stated as it’s own sentence, which slowed down his speech and drove home the point that she needed to think carefully as she spoke.

“He is dangerous.”

“So are we!” Will interrupted her and Ben held up a finger without looking his way, none of his team interrupted again.

“He can’t be trusted. He’s a sociopath, by his own admission. He killed people and did so without qualm and without hesitation and most importantly without guilt. He killed people Ben, he pays no price for that? We just let him go? We can’t arm him because he’ll just kill someone else. He will, you know it and I know it. The only exception to it for us would be if we used him to kill for us.”

Margaret looked at the ground between them and carried on with her thought. “If we let him go we are sentencing someone else to death. He needs to die. For justice.”

“Jesus.” Will swore under his breath and Zane was shaking his head.

“Zane?” Ben wanted to hear his thoughts.

“Cold blooded murder is different from self defence or defence of others.”

“This would be justice, he’s killed before.” Margaret cut in before Ben could say anything. He held up his finger to silence Margaret but she ignored it or did not understand it.

“Defence of others would be preventing him from killing again!” she added insistently.

“Margaret. You had your say. Let them have theirs.”

“But they don’t understand!” His Mother looked to be on the verge of tears.

“Jesus mom, would you just shut up for a second please? God damn it why did I agree to let you come along?”

Ben ran his hands through his hair and he caught Reid’s eyes. He was nodding, he agreed with Margaret. The other two looked at each other and then both of them shook their heads.

“Fucking perfect. Thanks guys!”

He had the deciding vote.