Dawnland (Book 2): Hella Kills Read online

  “I used to offer therapy sessions in Haverlyn Village.” The Professor gave me a brief smile.

  “He helped us out of some tricky mental situations.” I nodded toward the Professor and mouthed, it’s ok. I didn’t want him to feel like I was upset that he wanted to stay behind.

  Hipslow seemed satisfied with the Professor. “Well, Professor, I think we might be able to use a man like you here. Would you be willing to stay with us for a while?”

  The Professor stood on the last step and hung on to the banister. “I expect I shall. Due to my condition, my tremors, I’m not able to travel far.”

  “Well, that’s not quite a fair trade then.” Hipslow extended his hand for the Professor to shake. “One of yours for four of mine. We’ll talk about that later. There’s another condition for you to understand. You bring ours back safely.”

  “What if we don’t?” Stan asked, a weary tone in his voice. I glared at him, trying to make him shut up. I didn’t want anyone to ask or answer any more questions. I just wanted to get out of there. I could tell by the look in Zora’s eyes, she felt the same.

  Hipslow pondered the question for a while, examining the painting again like the elderly couple in it were giving him advice. “I hope to hold my men partially responsible for any act that would harm them, of course. We are mostly artists, writers, and poets here, not much of a fighting force. Others have come, farmers and carpenters and mechanics, and they might be willing and able to go. However, being that it is spring we can’t let many of the farmers go and we always need carpenters and mechanics. They are too valuable to us here now.”

  “You haven’t answered his question,” Stan said, sounding testy. I hoped that he wouldn’t offend Hipslow. I wanted to leave. It was becoming too complicated.

  “Maybe we don’t need the others,” I said. Hipslow’s eyes narrowed and he muttered something under his breath. “I appreciate your offer but I just don’t know if we can accept it. I want to go to Durham to find my friend Saudah. If we have to stay here and work off our debt, I won’t be able to. It’s nothing personal. From what I’ve seen, all this amazing food and I am really hungry all the time, this place is great.”

  Hipslow put up his hand. “Wait a minute. Slow down. You seem to be getting the wrong impression. I want to help you from the bottom of my heart.” He placed a hand on his chest.

  “We’ll give you the vehicles, and whomever wants to go with you can go. Honestly, some of the folks here have been itching for an adventure. We haven’t been north of Pittsboro since the occurrence, and others are bound to want to see what’s out there. Tell you what I’ll do. If they want to go with you, I’ll let them go, free of charge. Some of you.”

  Hipslow glanced at Huck and Zeke. “Not all of you.” He turned his gaze on me. “Some of you can give me a hand with the rest of the planting for a few days when you get back, and we’ll call it even. I don’t even care of the rest of you come back. If you need to rescue your friend, you can go.”

  “I’m worth more than you think,” I said, at once regretting my words because Hipslow narrowed his eyes again.

  “She’s not going anywhere without me,” Huck said, stepping in front of me.

  “I’m not staying here,” Stan said, and then he turned to me. “Hella, Saudah might not make it much longer.”

  “You all aren’t making this worth my while at all,” Hipslow said. “In this day and age everyone needs to do what they can to survive, and part of that is surviving together. I need you as much as you need me. Come on, now.”

  “Let’s see the vehicles,” Zeke said, stepping next to Huck. “And then we can make our decision. I’ll stay if you want me to.”

  “Now that sounds fair to me,” Hipslow said, laying a heavy palm on Zeke’s shoulder and kneading it like a piece of meat.

  That didn’t sound fair to me, but I wasn’t going to argue. I didn’t want to lose Zeke and his zombie bite immunity. I hoped to convince Zeke to come with me to rescue Saudah before our first mission was over. Zeke seemed to sense I was mulling over his decision in his mind because he glared at me, sending shivers through my body. No one made me feel more like I did something wrong than Zeke.

  Shouting and laughing and footsteps and whistling heralded the entrance of the Reverend, Mikey and Harper. The Reverend was wearing a straw hat and the children had baseball caps on. They were all dirty and dusty and carrying buckets and tools and must have just come in from the fields.

  When the Reverend saw us, he dropped a small pail he was holding and rushed over to give Stan and Zora hugs, as they were closest to him. The Reverend and the Professor exchanged excited words about our return and how they thought they’d never see us again. Harper ran up to Zora and they exchanged a lengthy hugging session. Even Mikey and Huck greeted each other with glee.

  Finally, the Reverend embraced me with such a powerful hug, that I felt rejuvenated immediately. Mikey came up and hugged both of us close together. When they let me go, Harper stared at me with a nervous smile. My bite had turned her brother into a zero, making our relationship volatile in the beginning, and at best it was currently strained.

  Surprisingly, after the Reverend was done with me, she moved toward me with her hands half raised. I rushed to her, picked her up, and showered her with kisses. She reminded me so much of my sister, the grief over memories of her made my eyes burn. After we were done reuniting, and Stan had been properly introduced to everyone, Georgia clapped her hands several times in rapid succession.

  “Now you all are messing up my entryway,” Georgia said. “Enough reunions for now. Let’s all get this dirty stuff out a here. Scoot.”

  “One moment my Georgia Peach,” Reverend Mac interrupted. “By chance have you all seen Shelly Mac? Georgia and Shelly made the best tasting crepes this morning for breakfast, marvelous blueberry sauce, melted in your mouth. But we haven’t seen her since.” The Reverend didn’t know that his wife was a zero and that my virus had killed her. I had killed her. “Georgia’s had to do all the work in the kitchen herself getting ready for lunch. I’m sorry about that my dear, you know how Shelly loves to help and she honestly wanted to help you make that Cajun chicken pasta. I don’t know where she went.”

  Georgia and Hipslow exchanged wary glances, which made me uncomfortable. It was like they knew what happened to her and didn’t want to tell him. I guess I understood that part, I didn’t want to break the news to the Reverend either. But I would have to do it now. Before I spoke up, Huck moved his lips to my ear.

  “Not now,” Huck whispered.

  “Reverend, I’m sure you’ll find her,” Zeke said. “We’ll be on the lookout for her as well. Now, Hipslow. How about you show us those vehicles so that we can get on our way?”

  “Reverend, we’re going to look for Trevan and Boa, do you want to come?” I asked.

  “No thanks, child. I have to stay here to wait for Shelly. Besides, I am needed here. These fine folks have told me they don’t have a man of the cloth and they need one. Who else is around to perform marriage ceremonies? In fact, we have a wedding coming up in a few weeks, right Georgia?”

  “Yes, my son, Galan, is getting married,” Georgia said.

  “Well, that should cost him Plenty,” I said in reference to their money. Georgia’s mouth gaped open.

  “Hella, surely you don’t think I would charge these good people. They are kind enough to fix me up with the church of my choice in their small community.”

  “Oh no, I didn’t mean that. It was a joke.” I covered my mouth to prevent it from opening it again.

  “We don’t need any comedians here,” Hipslow said. Georgia shook her head in agreement.

  The Professor handed me the keys to his apartment. “You might need these. If you can, help Snowball.”

  “Of course I will, Professor.” I hugged him one last time.

  Hipslow ushered us out the door and back on the street. Zeke and Huck walked ahead with Hipslow in deep conversation about something. I trailed
closely with Lily and Zora on either side, our arms linked together for support and unity. The three of us had formed an unspoken team. I would do anything for these girls, to keep them alive and to keep them together.

  Stan sometimes followed us, bringing up the rear and sometimes overtook us to catch up to Zeke and the others, only to have them stop talking and waiting for him to drop off again. I felt sorry for Stan, trying to find his place in this new world, bonding with Zeke yesterday only to be shunned away today.

  CHAPTER 9

  We walked down West Street to the Chatham Library and Carolina Community College. On the way we passed a funeral home open for business, a hardware store with people inside, and a bar with the lights out but signs of recent activity. We turned down the path to the community college, walking in between a couple of acres of farm land. A few people were on their knees planting, others were watering rows of small crops, still more were tending to the fences surrounding the garden. All had weapons, shot guns or rifles strapped to their backs, knives and handguns holstered around their waists, and even a few crossbows.

  This must have been where the Reverend and children were working in the fields and where Shelly Mac wandered off to meet her fate. I envisioned her fixing a fence next to the thick holly bushes and a zero reaching out to bite her, sealing her fate in an instant. All the zeroes in a thousand foot radius would now be dead because of my virus and all the people in the field were now safe. If it were true, that most zeroes had wandered away, and the remaining few were now dead, then they had a good chance at surviving without my protection, at least for a little while.

  Hipslow took us into the parking lot of the community college. A banner reading USED CARS was tied between two light posts. In the parking lot were several rows of super clean vehicles arranged by order of model. The SUVs were parked together, the ATVs were parked next, and pickup trucks, sedans, golf carts, tractors, and even a couple of semis filled up the lot. By the looks of it someone had spent most of their post apocalypse time collecting and washing cars.

  A man in an olive green suit that was too small for his large frame came out to greet us. He carried a clipboard under his arm and rubbed his hands together like he expected to make a deal.

  “Like what you see?” the man asked, transferring the clipboard to his hand. His forehead collected beads of sweat and his pupils darted to and fro like he was deciding on whom to approach first. He surely knew we didn’t have any Plenty and may be looking for other qualities like muscles, ability to cook, congeniality. I tried to look as pleasant as possible, but he reached forward and extended his hand to Zeke. He was going for muscle.

  “Welcome to Willies.” Willie smiled, revealing a sparkling gold tooth, and extended his free hand farther toward Zeke. Zeke put his hands in his pockets, leaned back and grimaced.

  “Willy, our new friends need a couple of vehicles for the afternoon,” Hipslow said, touching Zeke’s shoulder lightly as if to warn him to be friendly.

  Zeke reacted by stepping forward into the lot, letting Hipslow’s hand drop. He stopped in front of the ATV row. “We could use a couple of these.”

  Willie trailed after Zeke, walking quickly to erase the distance between them. “We can spare a couple of those.” Willie gasped out the words as if trotting after Zeke had used up all his energy. “The red one in the middle and the one next to it.”

  “Huck, what do you think?” Zeke said.

  Huck joined Zeke and they stood side-by-side with their arms folded like an impenetrable wall of bricks. My own arms tightened by my side as I watched the three of them talk in hushed tones. Zora and Lily walked swiftly over to where Zeke and Huck stood and I followed them leaving Stan standing next to Hipslow.

  Zeke and Huck had started the ATVs by the time we reached Willie. Black smoke puffed out of one of them, and the other one backfired, raising the heads of all around us. Willie cleared his throat and mumbled something about them not being started in a long time and what do you expect? Zeke and Huck took off around the parking lot to test out their new vehicles.

  “We’ll need something bigger to take the rest of us,” Lily said, touching Willie’s shoulder in a gentle plea. “A van perhaps?”

  Willie brightened with Lily’s gesture. “How about that floral van next to the third white one of the right.” Willie gestured across the aisle of ATVs to the string of vans and counted off with his hand.

  The van was an ancient VW bus with a pop up roof. I smirked. “Floral van? You mean hippie van.”

  “Scooby Doo, where are you?” Lily asked under her breath.

  “Is this guy kidding?” Zora said under hers.

  Willie pressed a hand on his sweaty forehead and regarded Hipslow standing with Stan in an expression that said he didn’t know what to do.

  “You have all these working vehicles.” Lily gestured around the lot. “And you want to give us the oldest one here? You do want us to come back, don’t you?”

  Willie bristled. “Well, it doesn’t seem like you are going to return with or without a brand new vehicle. And you have no Plenty to take care of your business now. What am I supposed to do? I’m running a business.”

  “You’re running nothing. How many vehicles you sold in the last seven months?” Zora asked.

  Willie looked thoughtful. “A few of the pickups, a sedan, a bunch of four-by-fours, several vans. A tractor more recently. All either with work contracts or plenty of Plenty. I can’t give you work contracts because I don’t know if you will be back.”

  “Willie, this young lady is right,” Hipslow said from behind me. His voice made me jump. “Let’s give them something more solid, something that can ensure their journey back to us. I’m sorry about Willie, folks, he takes his job a little too seriously sometimes. You see, his parents had a lot over in Sanford and if you’ve been to Sanford you know how devastating it must be for him.”

  Hipslow paused when he noticed that Willie was wiping his nose and dabbing his eyes with a kerchief. “Minnesota is going with them.”

  Willie’s sorrowful appearance improved. He took out a pen and made a note on his clipboard. “If that is the case, then they will need the wheelchair van. I might not have thought of that before if you had mentioned it. Minnesota going? Well, I’ll be tied to a phone pole. Those legs of his don’t work too well anymore, but he’s a fine shot.”

  Willie walked us down the row of vans. “There she is, the third white one down the row.” He pointed. “The keys are in it. We don’t have much thieving around here being that we all know each other and would notice if someone appeared with a new vehicle, or one was missing. I keep inventory every day.”

  Zora jogged over to the van without acknowledging Willie. She opened the door, started the engine and pulled up in front of us just as Huck and Zeke returned with the ATVs. “Let’s go,” Zora said.

  “With all due respect, mam,” Willie said, tapping his clipboard. “We haven’t worked out a loaner price."

  Zora turned off the engine and got out of the van. A man in his thirties with short sleeved polo shirt approached us, waving for Hipslow to come over.

  Hipslow turned to Willie. “Let me go see what Galen wants. You keep the negotiations easy.”

  “Sure thing, Hipslow,” Willie said. “I’m not going to let these boys rip me off.”

  Hipslow put up his hand and walked over to meet Galen. They talked for a minute and then jogged over to one of the campus buildings across the parking lot, one that resembled an aircraft hangar. They were moving fast, like something was wrong. The concerned look on his face made me wonder if they had found Shelly, but they were moving in the wrong direction.

  “How about five hours of labor each for the ATVS,” Zeke said. “That’s ten hours total for me because I’m taking Huck’s share.”

  “Ten hours is nothing,” Willie said. “I should get a full week out of you. Five days, ten hours for each ATV, or two weeks total.”

  “If you are getting two weeks out of Zeke, then we sho
uld get the van for free,” Zora said.

  “He is not getting two weeks out of me,” Zeke said.

  “You are not getting the van for free,” Willie said at the same time as Zeke.

  Nobody spoke. Zeke and Zora glared at Willie and then glanced at us. Willie glared at everyone. An uneasy tension rolled over us like a cloud, everyone posturing and preening and coming up with the next offer.

  “Twenty hours, two days, final offer for both ATVs,” Zeke said.

  “Fine,” Willie said. “For you. For the van I want sixty hours. I could use a woman’s touch around the house.” His gaze evaluated Zora’s body like he had something else in mind besides cleaning, riling everyone in our group with shouts of no way, come on, and get out of here, coming from each member.

  Stan stepped forward and in front of Zora. “I can cook and clean.”

  Willie made a nervous laughing sound in his throat. “Well, I was thinking more of a woman’s touch, you know? How about the Asian?”

  “I already have a contract with Fareva,” Lily said. “But thanks for the offer.”

  “Eighty hours of my fine services after we get back,” Stan said. “Final offer.”

  “Fine,” Willie said. He scribbled out some details on his clipboard and then produced two documents, one for Zeke to sign and one for Stan to sign.

  What was Stan thinking? I knew he wasn’t going to come back. I knew he wanted to go with me to find Saudah. What would happen to the others, the Reverend and the Professor, if he didn’t come back? Stan and Zeke both signed the documents.

  Hipslow appeared and came walking toward us with Galen, a man in a wheelchair, Broder and a woman. Walking slowly behind them was Miles.

  “Your crew is here,” Willie said stiffly like he was glad to get rid of us. He pressed the clipboard to his chest and held it there tightly with both arms crossed over it—guarding the contract Zeke and Stan signed with his life. He made a harrumphing sound and walked away from us.

  Galen, the man wearing the polo shirt, was the first to reach us. Close up, I saw that the shirt looked homemade, with stitches sewn in an uneven line. He was wearing a cowboy hat and wore mirrored sunglasses.