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©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
UNTITLED ZOMBIE STORY
By Wayne Webb
Chapter 9
Ben Johnson had been watching the various
and sundry people exiting the movie theatre as well as Derek, but from a
different vantage point. He was inside the gatehouse, at first anyway, ready to
throw the switch and then get out as fast as possible, attention would be drawn
to his location immediately, so he looked to do it and run behind the booth for
cover as quickly as he could.
The sonic devices he knew how to operate
and he recognized the configuration of the switches immediately. They had all
come from the same place, this town was outfitted by whomever the City’s
benefactors were as well. He knew very little about how and why the City came
about, but he was an integral part of making it work. It had only been recently
that he begun to question the motives and the direction of the City.
On the surface it seemed innocuous and
safe, but over time there were attitudes and comments that made him wonder if
they knew more about the malediction that befell humanity than they admitted to
him. They were certainly keeping secrets, this was hardly a surprising fact to
him, everyone deferred to the judgment of Tom and Linda for direction and
guidance, but they never shared their reasoning or their process.
He had taken to the road with some relief,
he could still believe in the City and what it was trying to do, but the things
that niggled at him, that tickled the back of his brain? He could leave those
behind and just focus on survivors.
It was luck, whether it was good or bad
that remained to be seen, that had brought him to the town where he had run
into his Mother and then she had joined his merry little band. She had designs
for the future, not content to be merely saved she needed to do something to
protect the future of her only living son. That over eagerness made her ask
questions, ones that got them noticed and ones that made Tom and Linda very
uncomfortable.
Angela was supposed to take him to the
source of the audio devices, his contacts in a nearby county had hooked them
up, and he had to leave collateral for the exchange of information. It could have been on the level, it could
have been a trap, but he sprung it anyway, hoping the remoteness would work to
his favor. If not then he would have to rescue his mother again, that was where
Derek would come in.
His idea had been to replace the members of
his team he did not trust with an outsider, one maybe not as trustworthy, but
one that certainly did not know the City and had no connection to the people
who ran it, but kept him outside of the inner circle.
They had lucked upon Derek and his brother,
and the idea of keeping one hostage and one to go with him grated at him, but
it made sense. He wondered if this what Angela was thinking in offering to be
hostage in exchange for one?
The car flipping had thrown a lucky
confusion into the mix, it was not his intention at all, he thought he would
have time to stop, but the car and momentum had other plans for them all.
After the car had rolled he was the first
to wake up, the driver’s airbag keeping him the least injured of the three.
Angela was out cold and there was no Derek in the back seat. He found him
outside the car, thrown clear of the wreck and in a ditch, unconscious but
unharmed apart from a few bruises.
He had cleared away from the wreck and
moved to a place where he could lie down and watch from a distance to see what
happened. He saw Derek awake and pull
Angela from the car, then to get knocked about by the explosion, the force and
the shock most likely culprits.
That which had knocked out Derek had awoken
Angela; she groggily got up and stumbled around aimlessly at first. Stopping to
check on Derek she gave him a hard kick and watched for a response and then
stumbled away. Ben left Derek to his slumber, figuring he could check in on him
later, but choosing to follow Angela first.
She walked all the way to the hill and then
walked around the bend to find the wall of undead blocking her entrance to the
walled of town. There was a back up plan and she knew how to get the attention
of the guards, she climbed the hill, the same one that Derek would find refuge
in, but she climbed up and shouted to the guards in the tower, Ben watched all
of this a few dozen feet behind her, taking shelter and increasing the distance
when he needed to.
Once the guards saw her they pacified the
undead and she walked calmly and carefully through the main gates. There was a
fair amount of fuss being made about her injuries and the zombies were
pacified, so no threat there either.
It gave Ben the opportunity to sneak inside
the town, walking along the edge of the fence, slipping into the space between
the walls and one of the tower buildings on the edge of the gate. No one was
looking, no one saw him get inside and hide in among the legs of the tower.
The rest of the day was spent walking about
the town, checking the lay of the land and figuring out what was going on. The
Hereford Clinic was the key; everyone’s lives seemed to gravitate towards it.
People went there like it was the only show in town.
Then when the helicopter arrived and in
came James on a stretcher, that’s when Ben decided something had to be done. It
was dark and there was no easy way to get out to the road and get Derek. A choice had to be made.
He had made his when he left him there.
