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  Grayson, who had helped destroy the creature by kicking it with his boots, bent over and rested his hands on his knees. He took a deep breath and said, “Ok Justin, let’s see about that leg.”

  Justin screamed at them to leave him alone, ran through the door and scampered over the back yard fence.

  “Well, shit. What do we do now?” asked Curtis.

  “I guess we have to go find him before he gets sick too,” Grayson sighed.

  THIRTEEN

  09 May, 2015 hrs local

  Three Pillars Estates

  Indianapolis, Indiana

  By the end of the day, most of the residents of Three Pillars had turned out to search for Justin. Curtis had sworn the small group who witnessed the attacks by Jessica and Alex to secrecy since they all agreed that it would start a wave of panic that could threaten the safety of everyone in the subdivision. So they’d simply told everyone else that he was missing, but considered dangerous.

  So far, no one had reported seeing him. The community was similar in size to a small town, with a little over 500 houses, but almost all of the homes were occupied and the ones that weren’t were searched multiple times. The only structures besides single-family homes that were in the neighborhood were two county-mandated condominium buildings with twelve condos per building, three small blocks of townhouses and the community activities clubhouse adjacent to the pool so it shouldn’t have been that hard to find him if he was still in the subdivision.

  Grayson and Curtis were frustrated that they couldn’t find Justin. They knew that in all likelihood, it was only a matter of time before he got sick and then began attacking residents, then they would just run towards the screams. They were fighting against the clock, but with the electricity still out, they decided to call off the search until the next day. Justin was potentially too dangerous, especially in the coming darkness, and even more so since only about ten people knew what had really happened with Jessica and Alex.

  Most of the residents who weren’t on guard at the gate or along the fence gathered on the neighborhood softball field at 8:15 p.m. like Curtis had instructed. Those who didn’t would have to be informed by their neighbors. After the search turned up nothing, the Three Pillars leadership decided the best thing to do would be to tell the residents about the fight at Jessica’s house and what they feared would happen to Justin.

  Curtis climbed up onto a large plastic utility box cover that was molded to look like a rock in an effort to beautify the neighborhood. Somebody had ripped it from its proper resting spot and carried it to the field so he could be seen by everyone.

  He wasn’t one to mince words, so he started right in, “Hi everybody.” He waited a few seconds while those closest to him greeted him. “Alright, we’re in a pickle, that’s for sure…”

  “Speak up!” someone shouted from the back of the crowd.

  “Sorry friends, is this better?” he asked. It sounded to Grayson like Curtis had almost instantly shed his civilian persona and stepped back into his days in the Navy as his voice boomed across the softball field.

  “Like I was sayin’, we’re in some trouble here,” he stopped as voices from the crowd asked questions. He held up his hands and said, “This is gonna go a lot easier and faster if y’all just let me talk. Hear me out, save your questions ‘til the end and maybe we can get home before it gets fully dark.

  “I’m sorry to inform you that both Jessica Spellman and Alex Brennan have died.” He waited a moment as more people gasped and a few even cried out. “Jessica was a member of the neighborhood watch. A few days ago, we raided that house on Sycamore Street to clear out the drug dealers and gang members, Jessica was with us.

  “When we got there, all of the pushers were already dead, except one. He attacked us and we were forced to defend ourselves. In the fight, Jessica was bitten by this man. When we searched the house…Now please prepare yourselves…When we searched the house, we found the other drug dealers’ bodies. It looked like this guy had been eatin’ his buddies.

  “I’m sorry folks. I don’t want to upset ya, but it does get worse. We brought Jessica back here and she got really sick, no matter what we did. So we were preparin’ to go to Pecan Valley because they have a doctor that lives there. When we went to check on Jessica this morning, she turned into a crazy person, just like the man at the Sycamore house had been. She attacked Grayson here and he fought her off.

  “It was like she wasn’t even human. She inflicted all sorts of damage to herself before we could even stop her, damage that would have incapacitated a normal person. And she was powerful, so powerful that she bent a metal pole almost in half. She killed Alex during the fight and she ripped him to pieces. We tried to knock her out, restrain her, lock her in the house, nothin’ worked,” Curtis took a deep breath and looked at Grayson. “Finally, after we’d exhausted all other means of restrainin’ her, we had to make the decision to save our own lives. The blame lies with me.”

  He spoke louder to drown out the voices in the crowd, “While we were recoverin’ from the fight, Alex bit Justin. There was no doubt that Alex was killed by Jessica. I don’t know how, but his corpse got up and attacked Justin. After we dealt with the threat from Alex, Justin ran out the back door and we haven’t been able to find him.

  “We don’t know anything at all about the sickness other than the three people we know of that had it for sure were extremely violent and didn’t react to pain at all. I think it spreads through bites or open wounds, but we can’t be sure. We need to find Justin before he gets sick and attacks people, spreading this disease. We can’t risk searchin’ for him in the dark. If the power was on, it might be different, but I don’t believe we should be out in the dark. Tomorrow morning we’ll start again, but I think it’s best if everyone goes home and locks up for the night.

  “Alright, that’s all I’ve got. Does anybody have any questions?” Curtis asked the now silent crowd.

  “Yeah, I’ve got one,” a middle-aged man near the center of the group said. “How do we kill these things? I’ve seen my fair share of horror movies, what you described is a freaking zombie. I want to know how to keep my family safe.”

  Curtis sighed, “Well, let me remind you that we only killed those three as a last resort…”

  “Bullshit, tell us how to kill them,” the man shouted out. Several others in the crowd echoed his sentiment.

  Curtis gestured to Grayson, “This man here has dealt the most with them. For the few of y’all that haven’t met him yet, his name is Grayson Donnelly. He’s helped us out over the past week or so and I think the Three Pillars would have been in some big trouble without him. Grayson, can you think of anything else to tell these folks that I left out?”

  Grayson shook his head slowly, “No, I think you covered what we know. To answer your question, sir, I believe the only way to kill them is by destroying their brain. Like Curtis said, Jessica…” He corrected himself, “The thing that had been Jessica had open fractures, a hole from a fireplace poker, all sorts of things, the only thing that finally stopped her was when we…” he stopped and glanced over at Jamie, who was staring at the ground.

  He thought of a delicate way to say that he’d bashed her brains in, but couldn’t come up with an easy way to describe it so he changed the subject slightly. “The other day, the only way to stop the original guy was shooting him in the head. He’d taken multiple shots and been hit with rifle butts. We just couldn’t do anything to stop him short of a massive head wound. Same thing for the third guy this morning.

  “So I guess that answers your question. There may be other ways, but we know that works for sure,” Grayson concluded.

  “Is there a cure?” someone else shouted.

  Curtis shook his head, “We don’t know. We just found out about this today. If we can’t find Justin tomorrow I want to go to Pecan Valley to talk to that doctor. See if maybe he can help. And we’ve gotta get in contact with the National Guard. There’re all sorts of rumors that they’ve mobi
lized and are comin’ our way, but we don’t have any proof of that.”

  “Is the virus airborne?” another panicked voice asked.

  “Hell, I don’t know, but I’d bet that if it was, we’d all be acting crazy right about now. So, for the time bein’ we hafta assume that it isn’t.”

  Curtis waited a few more moments then said, “Ok, it doesn’t seem like there’s any more questions. Let’s start searchin’ first thing in the mornin’ and we’ll plan on meeting back here at noon if we don’t find him. Don’t forget about our car horn message system: 1 long blast is a non-emergency and you’re to meet at the softball field; 3 short blasts is an emergency, report to your designated perimeter defense location; and 5 short blasts is an emergency, arm yourself and defend your family where you are. Good luck, we’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

  As the crowd slowly shuffled out of the chain-link fence gate, Curtis and Grayson hung back to talk to any stragglers. A few people stopped and asked non-meaningful questions, probably just wanting to stay with the company of others. One of the residents who stayed at the back of the smaller group was Jamie Spellman.

  Grayson noticed her and walked around everyone to talk to her. “Hey, how are you holding up?” he asked.

  “I’m ok, I guess. I’m just really overwhelmed that this is happening, y’know?”

  “Yeah, it’s insane. Three weeks ago I was worried about leaving my dog with my extremely busy fiancé. Now they’re both dead in a nuclear explosion and there are…Well, there are zombies running around in Indiana.”

  “So, do you think we’re safe in here?” she asked as she gestured towards the cinder block wall that marked both the boundary of the softball field and the sub-division.

  “I think we’re safer in here than out there, that’s for sure. Some of the shit I saw driving across country was just crazy. Did you know that when I linked up with the neighborhood watch from the Three Pillars, I was hiding from an armed gang at a gas station? I was getting freakin’ gas and got jumped by a group of them. They killed the owner and destroyed my car. I didn’t have anything they needed, they did it just because they could. It’s like some bizarre Mad Max movie outside of these walls.”

  “Sure, but now it’s like a horror movie inside the walls,” she grimaced. Her lip began to tremble and she glanced away quickly from Grayson. He reached out to hug her, trying to comfort her in some way. “I can’t go back to that house,” she sobbed against his chest. “Jessica’s body is still in there where you guys beat her head to a pulp.” She stopped and sniffed, “That other guy is in there too. I really can’t go back. Do you know someplace I can stay?” she asked. Then she looked up at him and asked tentatively, “Or can I stay with you? Please?”

  “Yeah, I…um, I’m staying with the Longs, Curtis and Julie, in their extra bedroom. It should be fine, there’s a small couch in bedroom or I can make a spot on the floor for me to sleep on. I’m sure they have some extra blankets.”

  She smiled up at him, “Calm down Grayson. I just need someplace to stay. You just lost your fiancé and I’m not trying to move in on you or something like that. We can share the bed. I feel really safe in your arms right now and I just want to have you there to hold me in the dark.”

  Grayson cleared his throat and gave her a playful squeeze. “Ok, but you have to promise me you’ll keep your hands to yourself, no funny business,” he said with a goofy grin.

  “I promise. I know we just met, but you’re one of the only friends I’ve got here in Three Pillars. Before all of this, I didn’t really interact that much with too many people in the neighborhood other than saying ‘Hi’ on the street when I was outside. I…I just need to feel safe for a little while until I can sort things out,” she reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips at first, then her mouth parted slightly as she kissed him deeper. After a moment, she broke their contact and leaned back. “Thank you, I really appreciate you taking me in for a couple days. I’ll try not to be a burden on you guys.”

  Wow, that wasn’t what I expected to happen, these are strange times indeed, Grayson thought as he led Jamie back towards the Long’s house.

  ***

  10 May, 1238 hrs local

  Three Pillars Estates

  Indianapolis, Indiana

  Grayson watched as Curtis dismissed the gathered crowd. How had they failed to find this guy? Justin had eluded everyone for more than twenty-four hours. He didn’t go out of any of the gates and no one had seen him go over the walls, so it was assumed that he was still in the neighborhood’s perimeter. Grayson had personally checked the four vacant houses in the neighborhood and revisited the scene at the Spellman house.

  Jamie had been inseparable from him since last night. She’d dutifully trudged beside Grayson wherever he went and helped him search. When they went to her house, she stayed outside while Grayson checked the place out. He gathered up some of her things from the spare bedroom and she requested that he bring her the fireplace poker for a weapon. She said it was light enough that she wouldn’t get fatigued carrying it and small enough that she felt she could use it in enclosed spaces.

  Last night had been…interesting. When they returned to Curtis and Julie’s house, the Longs graciously extended their invitation to stay to Jamie. They had a cot that they could set up in the office and Grayson offered to move to the cot, but she’d declined, preferring to stay with Grayson. The Longs smiled knowingly, which caused Grayson to flush bright red. Finally, he was thankful for the low light provided by the oil lanterns.

  Everyone decided to get cleaned up from the day’s work and get together afterwards to play a game. Sam and Gretchen had given Grayson some spare clothes several days ago and he gave Jamie a shirt and a pair of sweat pants to wear and filled the bucket in the bathroom for her with cold water so she could bathe herself in the tub. Thankfully, the subdivision was supplied by a water tower which continued to provide enough pressure for the taps to work, but checking the tower’s water level was high on their mission priority list.

  Once they were reasonably well scrubbed, they reassembled in the family room to talk about their strange new world and half-heartedly played cards while they talked. After a while, Jamie began to nod off and the Longs decided it was time to go to bed themselves.

  Jamie laid on the bed and true to his earlier words, Grayson began to make a pallet on the floor. She’d chided him for his modesty and pulled him to the bed beside her. But, true to her word as well, Jamie simply curved her body into his and pulled his arm around herself and went to sleep. It had taken him a long time to fall asleep.

  Grayson adjusted his pants as a bulge slowly, inevitably began to form while he thought about the feeling of her tight, firm body against his last night. He tried to clear his head and focus on what Curtis was saying but his mind kept drifting.

  “Ok, we’re gonna take a small group over to Pecan Valley to check on their neighborhood and talk to their doctor about this sickness,” he said. “The last contact we had with them was a few days ago on one of our supply gathering missions, but since then we haven’t spoken and we can’t get them on the ham radio. It’s about three and a half miles from here and we gotta walk to save the gas in the cars. I’ll be staying here to continue the search for Justin, coordinate a link-up with the National Guard and to oversee the defense. I need four volunteers to go over there to link up with them.”

  Grayson raised his hand and from the corner of his eye, he saw Jamie raise hers a split second after his. Gretchen and Sam both volunteered as well. Curtis shook their hands and wished them luck before returning to examine a large map of the neighborhood.

  ***

  The trip to Pecan Valley was fairly uneventful and the small group made good time. They walked down the middle of the road when possible and veered up onto the sidewalk when the road was blocked. Grayson didn’t want to risk spooking a homeowner by walking too close to their house, and definitely not across their lawn. In today’s ultra-protective environment, it just made
more sense to err on the side of caution, he reasoned, it would be a tragedy if someone was injured because of a jumpy homeowner.

  Regardless, though, they didn’t see anyone. A few times Jamie thought she’d seen a face in a window or the movement of curtains, but she couldn’t be sure. Each time she pointed it out to Grayson, but no one ever reappeared so they hurried on their way.

  Several blocks away, they saw the black wrought iron fence of the subdivision. Grayson employed a lesson he’d learned in dealing with tribal warlords in Afghanistan and instructed everyone to ensure their weapons were slung or put away in an effort to show that they were unthreatening, while still allowing them quick access if they needed them.

  Two blocks from the entrance, there were hand painted posters tied to the street signs. Written in block lettering, the signs said “ENTERING PECAN VALLEY PROTECTION ZONE. IF YOU PROCEED, YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO SEARCH AND YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE SEIZED FOR OUR USE. PLEASE TURN BACK.”

  “Well, there’s nothing like American political correctness. They might as well have said ‘Go fuck yourself and leave us alone,’ but they decided to say it as nicely as possible. I bet these guys will just love to hear from us,” Sam said with a slight chuckle.

  “Curtis said that when we made contact with them a few days ago, they seemed willing to cooperate, so hopefully they will be,” Grayson said.

  They continued slowly forward until they were less than thirty feet from the gate. “Halt!” a male voice echoed from somewhere in front of them. “State your business,” the metallic voice drifted from behind the fence.

  “Are these guys serious?” Sam asked nobody in particular.

  Grayson yelled out, “We’re from the Three Pillars Estates. We have an injured person and were told you had a doctor that could give us advice.”

  A man appeared at the gate. He held up a small bullhorn and spoke into it, “Hold on.”

  A few minutes passed by and the group moved off the street to the shade of a tree. Grayson busied himself by throwing pebbles at a larger rock he’d chucked into the street. Sam and Gretchen talked about their family out west with Jamie.