Page 48 of Resurrection
We’re obviously done with the conversation, but, apparently, David’s not, and decides to follow us as we continue towards the edge of town. “Well how do you know this isn’t where you’re supposed to be going?” he continues, not taking the hint. “The Lord works in mysterious ways, and you four are just the types of people we’re looking for here at Phoenix Rising.”
Hawk suddenly stops in his tracks with a growl, whirling around and aiming his AR-15 directly at David’s face along with Jax. “Because it’s not! End of story! Do we have an understanding or do I need to elaborate?” He punctuates his sentence by pushing the barrel of his gun into David’s cheek, driving home the fact that we’re done here.
David, eyeing the metal against his face, puts his hands up, finally surrendering as he takes a few steps back. “Ok. Ok. I gotcha. I can truly see we’re of a different stock and breed, now. No need to get violent.” He cuts his gaze to the two at our sides, the subtle gesture gets them to back off, finally. “We’ll let you get on your way.” He steps to the side, lowering his head by way of dismissal before returning his gaze, looking down his nose at our group. “Stay safe out there.”
With our weapons still at the ready, we speed walk as slowly as possible—so as to not draw any more attention to ourselves than we already have—to the other side of the town. Skeptical faces look at us from every direction, pausing their jobs at their curiosity and then continuing their work shortly thereafter. A few minutes have passed by the time we finally reach the town limits, and it takes everything we have in us to not sprint for cover.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Aly
We manage to make it a little more than a mile away before my thoughts word-vomit themselves right there in the middle of the road. “Ok... Now, I know I was all Team Utopia when we first entered that town, but, seriously... That was fucking weird, right?! Like, straight out of a horror movie? Please tell me it wasn’t just me?” Ugh, just thinking about it again is giving me the heebie-jeebies. I need to shake myself just to rid my skin of the feeling of them watching me.
“Yeah, something was definitely off about that place,” Jax says, taking a brief glance behind him towards the direction of the town.
“Did you guys notice?” Cole turns to look at us, stopping in his tracks and causing the rest of us to do the same. We’re about thirty minutes away from Creepville, USA, so we should be good to take a little pitstop.Hopefully.
“What do you mean? Notice what? Are we talking specifics? Because the whole damn place was fucked,” Hawk answers as a tremor takes over his body.
“Ok, let me put it to you this way. They were trying to create some sort of imaginary land of fantasy back there. A perfect piece of paradise whose very purpose was to duplicate that of a normal, everyday existence prior to the zombie apocalypse. However, there was one specific part of a normal, everyday life that was noticeably absent.” Cole waits for us to respond, letting us take the time to really look back at what we did, or, in this case, didn’t notice.
I think back to when we arrived at the village. People were milling about, doing daily chores. There were kids running off to the playground, and guys on the side of the road exchanging goods and…
Now wait a damn minute….
“Holy shit... There weren’t any women!” I say a bit louder than I probably should have, stunned that I didn’t notice that a major part of the population wasn’t present and accounted for.
Cole points in my direction. “Exactly! There were no women to be seen anywhere in the entire town as we walked through. The only females that could possibly be identified were the children, but even so, where are their mothers?”
He’s got a point. The village looked like it was running like an Amish or Mennonite set-up—plainmatching clothes, everyone pitching in to help everyone else, just general community parameters all together. But if that’s the case, wouldn’t the women be tasked with watching the children? I know it’s a little misogynistic to think like that but still. I saw none.
“Is it possible they all died?” Jax interjects.
I mean... maybe? I agree with his devil’s advocate approach to a point, but what are the odds that not a single woman survived if all these guys did? I know I’m not one to talk—with me being the only woman I’ve seen in over a year—but, then again, I thought I was the only person in this world remaining out ofbothsexes before Cole, Hawk, and Jax found me. And then we ran into Earl’s crew. After that it was Earl’s brother and his guys. It just proves that we aren’t the last one’s left, which means, statistically speaking, there must be women. If that’s the case, however, then where were they?
“No, I don’t think so. It’s just not probable. Before Day One, the ratio between male and female was fairly close at about fifty percent going either way,” Cole argues, hitching a thumb over his shoulder. “There were at least a hundred or so people back there. Logically speaking, at least half of those should be female. Given the account that some may have fallen along the way, a lower headcount is a possibility, but to not have any?”
“Or maybe thatiswhat happened and they turned this place into an actual He-Man-Woman-Hater-Club,” Hawk debates, pursing his lips to the side.
“That theory wouldn’t prove acceptable either. If all the women perished, then where did the children come from? I saw at least four infants during our brief walk through the town. Someone gave birth to them. Someone inresidence,” Cole continues, drawing a hand down his face as he turns to look back in the direction of the town. A heavy sigh falls from his lips, exasperation filling the air between us.
“I’m just happy to be far away from there and ready to put even more space between us.” I stand, securing my pack and readying my weapon again. The fact that we’re only a mile away from Jeffrey Dahmer’s theme park is doing absolutely fuck-all to calm my nerves. I need to create even more distance between us and them. Like, now.
“Amen to that,” Hawk responds before grabbing my waist and hauling me closer, quickly brushing his lips at my temple but never taking his eyes off our surroundings. Always on guard. “Come on. Let’s keep moving.”
We turn as a unit to continue our journey north, with Cole and Jax falling in line around us. The sun is setting in the distance, looking like we have about another hour or so before it’s down completely. There’s just one major problem with that: we’re in the middle of nowhere again.
We passed by dozens of houses and commercial properties after we crossed the bridge leading out of the town, but none seemed far enough away for us to comfortably want to use them as a temporary safehouse.Now, I almost regret not having stopped at one of them... Almost. The only place with decent shelter is back in the direction of Creepville and, yeah no.Fuck that noise. I’d rather sleep in a circus tent surrounded by clowns.
I pick up my pace, urging my body to comply and push through the pain and exhaustion of a long, arduous day. There has to be something on this route we can use for the night. I’m not even opposed to pitching tents if we need to, but the thought of being out in the open when that town is so close—not to mention... uh, hello... zombies!—makes me uneasy. Looking at the guys, I know they feel the same.
They’re vigilant. Cautious. Alert. On edge.
They have yet to lower their weapons, continuously sweeping the tree line on either side of us as well as the road behind for any lurking threats, alive or dead. Sadie is just as attentive—sniffing the air here and there—and perking up her ears every few minutes. Evenmyweapon is ready to go, my finger hovering over the trigger guard as we turn our speed from a fast walk to a slow jog.
Shelter.
We need to find shelter.
