DEAD: Reborn (11 page)

“Bullies?” Catie asked.

“Group of older kids…mostly boys. They all wear the old Chicago basketball jerseys. Most of them paint their faces in reds and blacks. They steal, they kill, they…” one of the girls in back explained, but her voice broke and she stopped.

Several of the children around her moved in close to offer consolation. She was ushered away and vanished from view. A few seconds later, Heather’s head popped around the corner,

“Why are you guys here?” Heather asked as she waded through the group. “I told you that I would be back before noon.” She looked at Catie with a scowl.

“Kevin was worried about you,” Aleah said. “You had to know that he would come after you if he found you missing. Of
all
people, you should know that.”

“Is that man with you?” the leader called.

There was a visible change in all of the children. The silence of the night fell like a wet blanket over a fire. It seemed to wrap all of the young ones in gloom and shadow as they seemed to bunch in tighter.

“Can you tell me what you have against Kevin?” Aleah posed the question. “He did nothing to anybody here. Actually, he probably would have done anything he could to help if you’d simply asked.”

“There were some bad men through here a few months ago,” the leader finally spoke, after looking around the room and seeing a few nods from those that would even meet his gaze. “They…did things. They took some of us. At first we thought it was the Bullies. But we captured one of them and made him answer our questions. He did not know about our friends. But he had seen a group of men sneaking around. Some of us went looking. Fish was our leader back then…him and Ginny.”

At the mention of the name “Ginny”, several of the children had to stifle little cries and sobs. Aleah and Catie both noticed a few of the girls slip away and vanish back into the vault or tomb, or whatever it was that these children had converted into their home.

“He picked ten of us to go search. We found their camp just this side of Valparaiso. There were thirty or so of them…and the cages. The cages are where they kept…” The young boy’s voice became strangled. He had to take a few deep breaths and hid his face in his hands for a few moments. When he looked back up, tears had smeared the dirt on his face, but his eyes glittered with defiant anger that had wiped out the sadness…or at least replaced it for the time being.

“Fish told us to stay put. He was going to sneak in at night and try to rescue Ginny. They caught him and all that night we heard him screaming. Eventually it stopped. The next morning, he was hanging upside down from a street light. The men brough
t out girls from the cages and did terrible things to them right under where he hung. And then they brought out Ginny and…”

When the boy stopped this time, it was one of the girls who continued the story. “They killed her and just left Fish. By the time that they moved on and we could get down to him…Fish was almost dead. We brought him back, but he did not last the night. He told us that they made him talk and that he was sorry. He said that they knew where we were hiding…so we came here. Nobody likes the graveyards.”

“And how long ago was that?” Catie asked.

“About two weeks.”

“So why would you think Kevin—” Aleah began to ask, but was cut off by the leader who had once again composed himself.

“Three times we have been attacked while out trying to gather food. The last time…” the boy looked up and his face a
lmost appeared as if it were carved from granite. “The last time, we caught one of the men. We made him talk just like they did to Fish.”

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence until Heather finally spoke. “
If you all just go back in, I’ll be there in a minute. I just need to talk to my friends.”

“I think it is better for you to just go with them,” the leader spoke.

“Now, Sean, there is no reason for you to get worried. I just want to let them know I am okay and tell them when I will be returning,” Heather said as she placed her hands on the boy’s shoulders.

He was just about as tall as she was and looked her in the eyes. “It was nice of you to come back
, and you will always be welcome here if you choose. You know where to look for us. Just be careful. We thought that the Bullies were bad…but there is worse.”

“What if I help you take care of your little problem with whoever these men are?” a voice asked
from the dark, causing both Catie and Aleah to jump as Kevin seemed to materialize out of the darkness beside them.

The rustle of weapons stirring came, but Sean turned and put his hands in the air and patted down in a gesture for them to all relax. He turned back and climbed a few stairs to separate himself from the group.

“Why would you want to do that?” It was not spoken with malice or anger; it was simply a question.

“Because,” Kevin stepped into the doorway past Aleah and Catie, “some friends of mine have reminded me that sometimes we need to stop and help those in need. I think about how I would hope there is somebody out there who might have helped my mom and my sister. But how can I hope for what I am not willing to do?”

“But I cannot let any of my people go out there. For one, they are too afraid, and for another most of them believe that if Fish failed…they do not stand a chance,” Sean said.

“I would not ask for any of them to come…just you.”

A murmur went through the crowd that still stood gathered around. A few were trying to clutch at their leader, shaking their heads as they made their feelings known in regards to how they felt about that prospect.

“I think that Heather can stay here,” Kevin spoke when n
obody else seemed inclined. “I will bring Aleah and Catie with me…and you.”

“Thanks for asking,” Catie grumbled. Kevin spun around but she was smiling. “This is why I hooked up with
your group in the first place,” she said with a smile that shone in her eyes. “I was starting to think I had made the wrong decision. I came to be with you guys because I figured that you were out in this hell on earth trying to do something. Hell, the way that Willa talked about you…you practically walked on water. You were risking your life to bring medicine to a sick girl in the dead of winter. You were going to just walk into a city full of zombies without even giving it a second thought.”

“But I thought that you were pissed because he was suppo
sedly so reckless,” Aleah snapped, turning to face the other woman. “What about how he was putting us in danger with some of his
questionable
decisions…such as this one?”

“
Absolutely.” Catie gave a curt nod. “But up until this point, all I had seen was him someplace safe while those he travelled with went out into the field.
This
is what I was waiting for…for him to do something on his own.”

“Can we debate this later?
” Kevin said as he wormed past the two women and down to where Sean stood. “So,” he thrust his hand out to the young man who looked at it tentatively before clasping it, “do we have a deal?”

Sean seemed reluctant at first, but eventually clasped Ke
vin’s hand and gave a small nod. All of a sudden, he seemed like a little boy again. Kevin immediately had doubts about including this youngster in the plan, but the die was already cast.

“So the first thing we need to do is figure out where these animals moved their camp. I need to put eyes on them and see what we are dealing with. Also, I need you to tell me everything that you know or found out when you…questioned your priso
ner. I am assuming that he is no longer here…or alive?”

Sean shook his head.

Kevin looked around at the dozen or so children that had remained when he appeared—all boys—and saw the same haunted look on their faces. That look was at war with the face they wanted to show; one of bravado and fearlessness. As he looked at them all, he made a vow that he would return these children to their childhood…or the best facsimile he could create.

“So,” he patted Sean on the shoulder and nodded towards the opening a few feet away that would no doubt lead to a crypt of some sort, “can I come in?”

Sean looked around, but none of the other children seemed willing to hold his gaze. At last, he looked up at Kevin and nodded. Catie shut the door and was the last in line as the entire group made their way to the place these children called home.

“Tell me, how did s
o many kids end up together?” Kevin asked, once he found an open spot on the crowded floor amidst all of the bodies clustered together.

He did his best to keep from ma
king a face at the smell. The odor reminded him of the worst locker room seeped in Dumpster squeezings. His eyes flitted over the group of children and he was disturbed by what he saw. From the haunted look in their eyes, to the dirt and open sores, these kids would not make it another year in their current situation.

There was an instant hush that fell over the room. Kevin looked around to discover that not one single child was making eye contact with him. A few had moved away as if that extra few inches of distance could provide some form of separation. Even Sean was looking at his hands and seemed flustered.

“Anybody?” Kevin prodded.

“We were in juvie,” Sean admitted.

“You mean…like jail?” Kevin asked as he scanned the room once more. But these were only children. A few were no more than ten years old!

“No…not
like
jail…we were all in detention.” Sean looked up and some of that defiance was creeping back.

“Whoa!” Kevin put up his hands. “You don’t have anything to worry about with us. What’s done is done.”

“When the first stories started coming in, nobody believed it,” Sean explained. “We all thought that the guards were just having a go. They like to screw with your head in there.” That statement received a few nods of agreement from the others.

“One day they told u
s all to go to our dorm rooms. It was the middle of school time…and they
never
interrupt school. They will run a drill during a meal, or while we are in bed, but school is sort of off limits. That was the first time we thought it might be something serious.”

“Tell ‘em about the television,” a voice called, inspiring more feverish nods,

“One of the guards came in and cut the wire to the cable,” Sean said. “He told everybody that we were to stay in our pods and that not even the orderlies would be allowed out. Our meals would be brought and handed to us. Just before he left, he said that if any of us had belief in God, now would be the time to start praying.

“That night, a different guard came in with a new cable and turned on the television. He set our sack lunches on the main t
able and just left. When the television came on, we saw all the people being attacked, the fires burning…and then they showed some stuff from a helicopter over the city of Chicago. The streets were full like it was a parade…but when they zoomed in, it was horrible.

“That was when Fish started telling everybody to save up anything they could from the sack lunch we were given at di
nner. When morning came, nobody showed up. We waited until noon and still nothing. Somebody went to bang on the door to demand our meal and the door opened!”

Kevin noticed that a few of the children inched closer t
ogether and seemed to clutch at each other. He had a feeling that this is really where their story began.

“Fish and a few of us ventured out. The hallway was lit just like normal, but there was not a
sound. Anytime you leave the pod to go someplace like medical or to school, you hear the sounds of guards’ heels on the floor, or those stupid radios going off. That was when I realized that I hadn’t heard one single announcement in the past day or so. You get so that you just tune them out, but all of a sudden, it hit me that we had not heard anything.

“When we reached the tower—that is what we call the big area that sits at the hub of the pods—where the guards hang out and watch us on their monitors. That is also where you are pr
ocessed through if you have to go out on transport…like if you need to see a dentist or if you get stitches. We saw nobody up there at all. Even in the middle of the night there are at least five or six guards in there.

“When we reached the end of the hall, Fish boosted me up so I could look inside. At first I thought I was seeing some ho
rror movie on a few of the monitors. There were kids all torn up, stuff hanging out, and dark smears all over. The monitors were black and white, so it took me a minute to realize that it was blood. One other pod was like ours…in other words, everybody was fine. The bad ones were the two girls’ pods.

“I told Fish what I saw, but he didn’t believe me and had a couple of us help boost him up so he could see. It only took him a few seconds before he told us to put him back down. He stood there for a
second, and then told us to all go back to our pod. He said he would be there in a few minutes.

“When he came back, he had some nasty stuff splattered all over him, but he also had the emergency keys. All our doors are electronic, but they each have a regular key mechanism that works in case the power goes out.