Man Eaters (Book 2): The Horde Read online

  “Whoa, love. Take a breath.” Dallas held her hand out to Roper. “You’re not going off half-cocked. Come. Sit.”

  Reluctantly, Roper sat next to Dallas and held her other hand. “I’m sorry. I just…it looks horrible.”

  “Well then, now might be a perfect time for Luke to tell his story.” With only a look, Einstein, who stood by the door, took off in search of him.

  “We’ll clean this out, sew her up, and toss some antibiotics down your gullet and you’ll be as good as new. We just need to keep it clean and keep your girl calm.”

  “We have antibiotics?” Roper’s voice cracked. “Seriously?”

  Butcher grinned. “You can thank Luke for possibly saving your girl’s arm and potentially starting a war all in one fell swoop.”

  Dallas squeezed Roper’s hand “Did you hear that? Luke may have—” Dallas stopped and looked hard into Butcher’s eyes. “Did you say start a war?”

  ****

  After Luke finished with his tale, Dallas asked one question. “Did you get that out of your system?”

  To which he replied, “Butcher asked me the same thing. It wasn’t about getting it out of my system, Dallas. Think of what our own military saw. We have to assume everyone is going, WTF? We have to assume that now everyone is wondering what those dastardly Americans are up to.”

  “To what end? What purpose did it ultimately serve?”

  Luke paced back and forth across the conference room where Butcher was tending to Dallas. “To the end where everyone is aware that we are still here, and we’re not going to be prisoners any longer. To the end that we just put the world on notice that we aren’t waiting around to die while they do nothing but watch.”

  “Don’t you suppose there’s a reason why our own military hasn’t rocked the boat?”

  “Actually, I have. Look, we know the hordes are migrating toward them. The military is busy doing two things: protecting the president and fighting off the man eaters. The latter would sure be easier if any other country decided to help us instead of rubbing their collective hands together waiting to get our goodies when we finally die.”

  “Not so sure I agree with your method, Luke, but I do understand your madness.”

  Dallas looked around her at the prison. “We’re living a gigantic irony here.”

  “Sit still,” Butcher ordered, pouring peroxide over the wound. It bubbled and foamed over the angry wound. “Compliments of my crazy ass lover from the ship he singlehandedly sank.”

  Luke knelt down so he was eye to eye with Dallas. “Just trust me on this, Dallas. It put everyone on notice that we are not ready to roll over and die. We need to see how they react, what they do. If we are going to take our nation back, we have to make sure the other enemy isn’t coming at our backs.”

  “I understand what you’re saying but—” Dallas winced when Butcher pushed the needle through her skin to sew her up. “You sure that’s a good thing?”

  “Anything is better than what we’ve been doing. Maybe if other nations saw how hard we are fighting to survive, someone will come to our aid. There has to be one ally out there who wants to help us get our lives back.”

  “I am not so sure there is, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.” Dallas looked down at the slice in her arm Butcher was attempting to close up. “We’ll just have to wait and see the fall out. Roper, would you call everyone to the main dormitory? I want to meet with everyone in fifteen minutes.”

  Butcher shook her head. “Make it twenty-five.”

  When Roper took Luke and Einstein with her, Dallas studied Butcher’s face as she stared intently at her needle going in and out of Dallas’s arm. “He must have given you quite a scare.”

  She nodded, not looking up. “More than you know. I can’t believe he’s suddenly this big risk taker.”

  “You can’t? Butcher, you’re carrying his child. I think he must feel the need to do something to make the world a better place. The timing of his little maneuver isn’t coincidental, you know.” Dallas winced as the needle poked into her raw skin.

  “I know, and though I get it, I’d like the father to be alive to see his child born.”

  Dallas inhaled a painful breath as Butcher kept sewing. “I’ll have a talk with him later.”

  Butcher shook her head. “No need. Brainiac gave me some food for thought about the whole thing. He actually accused me of emasculating Luke. Is there anything that kid doesn’t know?”

  Dallas winced again. “I doubt it. What were his words of advice?”

  Butcher sewed four more stitches in silence before finally answering. “You know how that kid is never wrong? Well, I don’t think he is this time either. He came to me and said he thinks we should put Luke in charge of the garmy.”

  The request took Dallas aback. “But he’s not—”

  “I know he’s not gay, but he is a soldier…a living, breathing soldier who needs to be more than just a part of our troops. He needs to lead. Maybe if he was leader, he wouldn’t take such risks.” Butcher’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. “Goddammit, Dallas, I love that man. I wish I didn’t, but it’s too late for wishes. In my attempt to keep him alive, I am slowly killing him. I can’t do that to him. If you offer it up to him, and he says ‘no thanks,’ then great. But if he says yes, as I suspect he will, then so be it. I’d rather he die doing what he loves than living in chains.”

  Dallas slowly nodded. “I don’t really know what to say to that, except you’re a bigger person than I am. I’ll talk to Luke, but he’ll have to agree if we are doing recon or need to be ZB-free, that he’ll have to stay back with the rest of them, and that will be my call. I won’t have that argument with him. If he is willing to do that, I’ll put Fletcher in charge of the ZB main shooting squad.”

  “Fletcher?”

  “The man is more accurate with a crossbow than I am with a revolver. He is level-headed and loyal to our cause.”

  “Loyalty is a good quality under the circumstances, but I have to say, I never imagined a bow and arrow as an effective weapon. If he is half as good as you say he is this, I have to see it.”

  “You will tomorrow. Tonight, we do the meet and greet, answer some questions and hand out assignments. I’ll talk to Luke about his assignment.”

  “Thank you.” Tying off the sutures, Butcher studied her handiwork before handing Dallas the antibiotics. “It’s damn good to be with you guys again.”

  Dallas looked into the eyes of one of the few people she was willing to die for. “You guys did great getting everyone here safely.”

  “It wasn’t a cake walk, but now that we’re here, let’s get to the task at hand.”

  “Making a home?”

  Butcher shook her head. “Killing those fuckers.”

  ****

  Once everyone was gathered, Dallas had them sit in a circle, introduce themselves and tell where they were from. Once it came back around to Dallas, she said, “You all know me. I’m Dallas. Before the epidemic, I was a firefighter. When all hell broke loose, Roper and Einstein helped get us to safety. Then we met up with Butcher, who saved Roper’s life. The four of us have been together ever since. Somewhere along the road, people started looking to me to make decisions, so I came by the yoke of leadership by group approval, not by my own design. It is a role I take seriously—your lives hang in the balance.” Dallas tried to make eye contact with each of the fifty-five people before her. “To be successful here, protocols must be maintained at all times and without exception. Again, our lives depend on it. To make this work, I’ve selected a job for everyone based on the informal conversations we had earlier today. For now, please do the job assigned you because the most important area for our safety is security and protocols.”

  A hand went up. It was Kat. She sat with her arm around the pit bull with the massive head. “I’m not sure I know what you mean by protocols.”

  “Thank you for asking, Kat. Protocol means procedure or a certain way of doing something. If the proto
col for accepting new survivors is to isolate them immediately in a holding cell, then we need to do that one hundred percent of the time with one hundred percent of the survivors. If we don’t, it will be the end of us.”

  “I see. Thank you.”

  “After I give each of you your job detail, I’ll go over safety protocols and what our goals are for cleaning up this place and making it our long term home.”

  After Dallas handed out job details and answered questions, she turned to Luke and offered him a small grin. “As you all know, we’ve established what Einstein likes to call a garmy, or gay army. Because we can’t get infected, it’s easier for us to go into towns to get leftover supplies, to clean out infected areas, etcetera. However, the garmy needs a leader—someone trained in military strategies. That’s not me.” She turned to Luke. “I’ve come to trust you with my life and those I love. If you have any interest in—”

  “I’d love to!” Luke answered quickly, as if Dallas might change her mind.

  Dallas caught Butcher’s eye, who mouthed ‘thank you’ to her. “A well-trained militia is required if we are to be successful. To that end, Fletcher and Hunter will train those who show proficiency with either the bow or crossbow. Luke, Butcher, and Henry will teach limited rifle skills because we don’t want to waste ammo. You’ll each get ten shots to determine your proficiency. If you are not proficient with rifle or handgun, you won’t get assigned one. If you have your own and choose to keep it, that’s fine, but you’ll have to provide your own ammo. We are not wasting bullets on poor shooters. Roper, Otis, and I will teach in-close fighting—though, if we follow protocols, we should never have to use that within the walls of base camp. Questions?”

  Benjamin spoke without regard for the hands that were raised. “Are you planning on outfitting everyone with a weapon? Seems to me giving weapons to people like Julie is more of a waste of ammo.”

  Roper leaned forward to reply, but Dallas touched her knee to quiet her. “Define people like Julie.”

  Benjamin blushed slightly. “Young. Not as strong as the rest of us.”

  Roper may have been stilled, but Zoe was not. “A woman can pull a trigger just as quickly and easily as a man, dumbass. That’s why there are female cops, female fire fighters, female soldiers. Jesus, join us in the twenty-first century, will you?”

  “Without the accuracy, like Dallas said, you’re wasting ammo. And don’t call me names. You people need to—”

  “There’s no place for testosterone swagger in this new American order, Bennie. You breeders need to trust people you spent decades denying rights to. One of those rights is the right to not listen to this bullshit.” Zoe had her finger in his face.

  “Breeders? How dare you—”

  Dallas held her hand up. “Zoe—”

  “Breeders?” Ben spouted, his face instantly becoming red. “Is that how you see us? Is that how you have reduced those of us who fought in wars to keep this country safe? Is that—”

  “Are you fucking kidding me with this? Plenty of our people gave their lives in the Middle East when they were forced to not tell, but you never cared about those deaths, did you, Bennie?”

  “It’s Benjamin and I think—”

  “Enough!” This booming word came from Churchill. “Dallas hasn’t finished. You two can take your useless argument somewhere else. Right now, we need to return our focus to keeping all of us safe.”

  Kat nodded and spoke even as her hand was in the air. “Zoe, it doesn’t matter what was. All we have is what is and what we hope to have. Both sides need to let go of past baggage. Anger gets us nowhere.”

  Dallas held her hands up to quiet the group’s rebuttal. “Thank you, Churchill and Kate. Ben, every man, woman, and child will carry at least two weapons; one ranged weapon and one close-quarters weapon. That is not negotiable. There will be no discrimination in Angola as long as I am in charge. Women will fight alongside men, young will fight along with old. What every one of us must come to terms with are the changes in the demographics of this nation. More than likely, there are now more gays than straights alive. That doesn’t make us better, that just means there are more of us…and at this point, that’s a good thing because we’re going to have to be the ones to clean up the rest of the country.”

  “Wait. What do you mean the rest of the country?”

  Dallas cleared her throat. “Unless and until our scientists can find a way to neutralize the man eaters, the people most likely to eradicate the man eaters are CGIs. We are one such group, and as we continue to grow, we will continue killing more and more until we can take our nation back. Angola is just the beginning.”

  For the next half hour, Dallas answered questions, explained what the next week entailed and why it was important for ZBs to stay indoors as much as possible while they finished a building-by-building cleaning of the rest of the base.

  Just when she thought she was done, Benjamin said, “This gay army you’re making. Where do you plan on acquiring the necessary weapons, like machetes and knives for them?”

  As Dallas opened her mouth, Gary answered, “There’s a machine shop and a repair shop on-site. We can make a butt load of weapons here at the pr—uh, base.”

  Dallas nodded. “Gary, why don’t you tell us what you know about this place?”

  “Ma’am?”

  “It’s okay. Tell us what all is here.”

  Gary stood a little straighter as he addressed the group. “Well now, Miss Dallas done chose a fine place for a base, ‘cause Angola was built for self-sufficiency. It’s gotta fire station with EMT equipment, a church, a rodeo, a canning factory, dairy…um, sugar mill, repair shop, print shop, and an airstrip.” He had to stop listing as the crowd began murmuring.

  “There’s an airstrip?”

  Gary nodded. “Yes, sir, and a plane still sittin’ in the hangar. The farm here can produce corn, cabbage, cotton, onions…um, squash and tomatoes. The ranch can hold up to two-thousand head of cattle.” He thought a moment. “And for those of you who are swingers, we got a nine-hole golf course.”

  The group was astounded. “A golf course in a prison?”

  He nodded. “And a tennis court. Over there are the beehive homes where the guards’ families could live, and the ranch house, one of the places we’re clearing tomorrow, has a conference center.” He smiled at Dallas, who nodded her thank you and picked up where he left off.

  “So, ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, Angola has just about everything we need to live comfortably while we grow our garmy. If all goes according to plan, we’ll have this place all to ourselves by the end of the week. We’ll be safe here while we train and recruit as many survivors as we can.”

  When the final question was asked, it was dark out, and Dallas let everyone retire for the evening. People slept in pairs, with each pair having one candle they’d brought with them from NOLA. The four children who were under the age of ten were terrified of the dark and crawled into bed with their mothers.

  As people crossed over each other to get to their chosen beds, Roper sidled up next to Benjamin and pulled him into the anteroom.

  “Excuse me, but what do you think you’re doing?” He asked.

  Before Roper answered, Zoe, Churchill, Ferdie, Fletcher, and Hunter joined them, blocking off any exit.

  “Listen up, asshole. You make Dallas’s job harder, I’ll gut you like a fucking fish,” Roper growled into his face. “And this is no idle threat. You just back the fuck up and pipe the fuck down or you won’t live to see tomorrow. Are we clear?”

  He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He did not appear the least bit frightened. “I should have assumed she’d resort to bully tactics.”

  Roper was within an inch of his face now. “You got that one wrong, buttmunch. We are the bullies, not Dallas, and you best learn to treat her with respect or you’ll be floating down the Mississippi wondering where your head is.”

  “Really? Your drama needs some work. I think—”

&
nbsp; Hunter moved so fast, no one saw him draw an arrow, notch it, and shove the metal tip into Ben’s open mouth. “Just nod your fucking head that you understand what happens if you keep trying to upstage Dallas or cause her any problems.”

  Benjamin slowly nodded as Hunter withdrew the arrow. “Good. We won’t have this conversation again.”

  “I can see that this regime is not what it appears to be. You plan to lead by mob rule.”

  “Dude, shut the fuck up.”

  “I may be quiet now, but when your leader asks if there are any questions, you’ll be sure to hear my voice.”

  Roper stepped back into his face. “Just be respectful, or I swear to god, the last face you’ll ever see is the one you are looking at right now.”

  When they all dispersed, Roper found Dallas chatting in the front office with Gary, who was still listing all there was available in Angola. When he finished, he took first night shift in the crow’s nest.

  “Interesting guy,” Dallas said just as Henry came by. “It’s not like he can see a damn thing out there, but he believes it’s a comfort to people knowing he is there.”

  “Who? Gary? Yes, he is. He knows this place inside and out. It’s good to have a guide for a place as big as this is.”

  “Which I find odd even for an ex-inmate. I thought he’d only know a little bit about—”

  “Ex-inmate?” Henry said. “Gary never did time here.”

  Roper and Dallas exchanged questioning glances. “But you said he’d just gotten out.” “Of Angola, yes. Of prison, no. Gary used to work here as a guard.”

  ****

  Roper’s Log

  We’ve accomplished a lot in Angola in two weeks—more than I thought possible, and with only one fatality. It came at the end of the first week and was a perfect example of what happens when one doesn’t follow protocol.

  Let me backtrack first.

  What we found in the other camps defies explanation. It is clear the prison came under attack from within and attempted an evacuation that wasn’t entirely successful. We found decomposed bodies and half-eaten body parts scattered about in the public areas. We found zombies roaming around the common areas, zombies locked in cells, zombies caught in a variety of positions and circumstances. While the majority of the 5,500 prisoners somehow got free of their cells, it became evident that they did so at some cost.