The three men pushed through the front door of the farm supply store and found a man slumped over the handlebar of a four wheeler. The ATV was plastered with mud that had been left to drive on the chassis from early spring adventures. It looked in decent shape if a little trail worn; the driver looked in far worse shape. His shirt was dark blue but with the two days worth of dust coating the fabric it was starting to turn a khaki color. Sweat stains were seeping into the cloth under his arms, on the back of his neck, across his chest and were being pulled into the sweatband of his cowboy hat the heavy brim of which was hiding the man’s face. From the look of the guy slumped over the handlebar it looked like had ha run a marathon to get here. Eric immediately wanted to hear the guy’s story.
“What can we help you with sir?” Sanchez voice was soft but held a note of authority. Whether he was trying to assert himself or simply playing the cop in the situation he was taking the reins of this meeting.
The guy pushed himself off the handlebar the muscles of her arms twitching and straining with the effort. His voice as choked with dust and made the man sound like a two pack a day smoker when he finally gathered the energy to speak, “you guys know what’s going on right?” When no one spoke he nodded to himself and started again, “they dead things, you’ve seen them right? The zombies?”
“We’ve seen them. Dealt with a few of them too,” Charles snapped. Give a man a war and he’d become a soldier Eric thought to himself as he heard the sharp finger of Charles’ words poke the exhausted man on the ATV in the chest.
“Then you know how dangerous things are.” The man on the ATV said back with a slight hint of defiance in his words. Upon closer look Eric pegged the guy as round fifty with the hard cut lines of a man use to hard labor. He was likely one of the farmers who had decided to take their chances in town when everybody else was moving out. Deciding that Sanchez was the more reasonable to the two men who seemed in charge the man turned to Sanchez as he spoke, “look, I’ve been all over the area in the last two days. I haven’t slept I’ve barely eaten and my family is sitting at home hoping I can find some help before we starve or those things eat us. Are you guys going to help or leave us to die?”
Sanchez was about to speak when Charles overrode the words on Sanchez’s lips, “what do you have to trade for our help sir and give us your name while you’re at it.” Sanchez turned to his left and fixed Eric with a hard cold stare. I know Eric thought to himself, were going to have a problem with him. I’m working on it.
Before the man could shake off the stunned look on his face Eric leapt into the void of the conversation. “I’m willing to help you if no one else is, free of charge of course.” Eric knew the impact his words were going to have on Charles as he said them. He was putting his own hat into the ring now for a share of the power of the community. The move was meant to put the lion’s share of the authority in Sanchez’s hands but for now Charles would see Eric as a threat to his own attempts to grab the leadership of the group.
The tired eyes of the man on the ATV fell on Eric and while he looked the man in the eye Eric could see the barely contained spark of hope on in the grey eyes. Maybe he guy hadn’t thought that he’d find anyone to help him before time ran out for his family. Maybe his impression of Charles which was probably accurate was extended to the whole group and he had already written them all off. “The names Brian young man and my family thanks you for your help.” The tense energy of the hope Brian saw in Eric made his voice quiver. Eric took the older man’s hand and gave it a firm shake. Brian’s hands were the callused and iron tough hands of a man who made his living using his hands.
“You’ll have to leave that gun of yours with us then Eric, it belongs to the community and I won’t have you going off to lord knows where with something so precious.” Charles already had his hand out beckoning Eric to hand over his gun. This was it Eric thought; this was the point where he set the half baked plan to pry the old Airman’s hands off the reins of power for good.
“The hell you are. This is my gun from my home. I’ve killed people and saved lives with this thing and its mine until I’m dead and someone plucks it out of my hand.” His eyes burned like laser into the Airman as the words came out of his mouth like a machine gun. Eric couldn’t back down now he was committed and in order for this to work he needed to charge at it full bore.
“You’ll give me that gun or we’re going to have a problem Eric. I’m not letting you take it with you to die out there somewhere in the farmland where I’ll never see that thing again.” Charles moved a step closer to Eric the weight of his prior authority in the military bearing down on Eric.
He steeled himself for what was coming next before he opened his mouth, “what are you going to do, take it from me baby killer?” Eric knew his guess about Charles’ service in Vietnam was right as the gnarled old man pulled his right arm back his muscles tensing like a spring under pressure. Eric didn’t bother to turn away, to take some kind of defensive action. He waited as Charles fist came flying towards him and crashed with unimaginable force against his jaw.
Eric felt the asphalt of the parking lot dig into the flesh of his skull as he tried to piece together the last few seconds. He had been knocked unconscious before and he knew that’s what had happened and while his rattled mind tried to reconcile the lost few seconds Eric pulled his legs under his and tried getting up off the ground. Two sets of hands came out each grabbing an arm and helped Eric to his feet. As Eric shook his head left and right trying to shake away the bursts of light exploding across his vision he saw Sanchez and the newcomer Brian were the two men helping him up.
As he looked around the group Eric smiled with satisfaction as the remaining men in the group backed a step or two away from Charles. They wore the horrified masks of men who were looking at a rabid monster as their eyes fell on the retired Airman. Eric’s feeble attempt at a plan had worked. He’d alienated the Airman and ensured that ever single man who’d been on the mission and lived to complete it would tell anyone and everyone about what had happened when they got back to camp. The story would spread like wildfire among the people at the farmhouse now that the distractions of cell phones, IPODS, and TV were dead and gossip would be the only form of entertainment for the foreseeable future. Eric had also made himself a sympathetic figure. He had stood up to help save a man and his family and taken his lumps like a man. If he wanted the mantle of leadership it was Eric’s from this point on but he’d use the spectacle of this to through the full weight of his support and confidence behind Sanchez and his leadership.
As Eric was reveling in genius of his political manipulations Sanchez leaned and and whispered into his ear, “Looks like I owe you one kid.” The Hispanic cop winked as Eric as he pulled away and Eric smiled. No one could ever rightly claim that Sanchez was slow on the uptake he had already discerned what Eric had done and what it meant for Sanchez and his future leadership. Good eric thought, the price was well worth it.
Charles wore a look on his face between anger and shock. Whether he saw the end of his political career in the fledgling community or just was stunned by how quickly he had unleashed the angry beast he had spent years caged in his chest was anyone’s guess. As he came back to reality he began to stutter. It took him a good two minutes to get control of himself again before he was able to speak in a coherent sentence again, “um yeah you go with this man Eric, see what you can see, help them as best you can and bring them back if you can.” Despite the fact that he was telling Eric what to do the words held a meek almost pleading tone in them. He wasn’t commanding anymore he was telling Eric he could go ahead with his plan if Eric still wanted to do it. Charles had been effectively neutralized, mission accomplished.
“Well then let’s get to it shall we, we’re burning daylight.” Eric turned to Brian but before he could take a step towards the ATV Sanchez put a hand on his shoulder and turned him around. “I’ve got something you’re going to need.” Sanchez stuffed one of his large hands into the front pocket of his duty vest and came out with a small black device with a large touch screen on the front.
Eric looked at it in stunned silence for a few seconds before speaking, “it’s a GPS, how long were you going to hold onto this thing?” Eric’s words were angry or hurt just surprised that Sanchez would hold anything back from the community. It didn’t change his views on the Hispanic officer’s ability to lead it just seemed out of character for the man that Eric had come to know.
“I wasn’t going to tell anyone about it until I needed to. I’ve already programmed the location of the farmhouse on there in case you have a hard time finding your way back.” Sanchez wore a fatherly smile as he spoke.
“Thanks, I’ve always been terrible with directions. You guys should go on without me, I don’t know what kind of a situation imp going to find at this guy’s house but I don’t think I’m going to be able to get there, assess the situation, clear things out if I have, and get back to the farmhouse before nightfall.”
“We don’t even know where you’re going so if you don’t make it back to the farmhouse we aren’t going to know where to come looking for you. Are you okay with that?” Sanchez’s eyes turned sad for a second and Eric understood. He didn’t want to cut Eric loose if he didn’t have to but they couldn’t risks the lives of the other members of the community and the guns to come looking for Eric if he got lost. The GPS was his best shot of getting home. “I don’t suppose you could send me with a little back up could you?” Eric was hoping that someone in their little group would be able to come along at least to give him an extra gun in case things got hairy at Brian’s house.
Sanchez thought about it for a minute while he chewed on his lip. Eric was just looking for a yes or no but Sanchez seemed to be mulling over the question more than he needed to. Finally finding the answer he looked back at Eric, “You should take your truck there’s no telling what kind of shape the vehicles are going to be like when you get there.” Sanchez was looking at Eric’s truck like he was about to give away his daughter to some soon to be son in law he didn’t care for. It was a huge risk of resources.
“What about a partner, someone to back me up?” Eric was watching anxiously over his shoulder as the sun started to pick up speed as it fell to the horizon.
Sanchez was still staring at the truck his words muffled by a gust of wind that kicked up at that moment, “Yeah I can spare you a man but you’re not going to like it.”
Five minutes later Brian was driving his ATV down the worn road of Main Street heading west into the farmland Eric and Travis in the black truck following close behind.