just up and launch an attack.
“C’mon, man, you take me for a fool?”
“Excuse me?” Kevin asked with a touch of confusion.
“Ain’t nobody come all the way out here from that far. Hell, you would have to have been on the road for—”
“Just over eleven months,” Kevin interrupted. “And I am not trying to take you for a fool. That is the truth.”
“And what brings y’all the way out here?” the man challenged.
“My family had a cabin in these parts back in the day. I came to see if maybe my mom or sister might have made it and perhaps still be living there.”
“I’m terribly sorry.” A man emerged from the bushes off to Kevin’s left, two more coming out as well, and then four more to the right. “I take it the place was empty.”
“Sort of.” Kevin let that answer hang in the air for a second to sink in. As it did, he saw knowing bobs of the head.
“Well, if’n you’re tellin’ the truth, I still need to ask what business brings you down here,” the man finally said after a moment of silence that seemed to be more out of polite respect than anything else.
“We saw three towns from where we camped last night,” Catie spoke up, deciding that she needed to assert that she was on equal footing. There was a trend in some communities to treat women almost as possessions or second-class citizens. It was always best to clear those sorts of thing up early.
“Also saw that there is a fire burning at one of them,” Kevin added. The faces on the men standing on the other side of the lazy river all reacted in some manner. He saw a mix of anger, agitation…and fear. “Look, we can understand if we aren’t welcome at the moment,” Kevin continued when none of them spoke.
“Actually, it might be best if you were to come with us back to Falling Run…that’s our little town,” the man who was obviously the spokesman of the group said.
Kevin glanced at Catie who gave a slight shrug. He turned back to the man and his group. “Okay.”
“Ain’t you gonna take their weapons first?” a younger man asked as Kevin and Catie finished crossing the bridge.
“We can stop and go back.” Kevin came to an abrupt halt just as he was about to step off the bridge. “We don’t give up our things. If that is a problem, then we will gladly turn around and leave.”
“Name’s Clint,” the man who had originally been talking to them said, casting a nasty look over his shoulder. “The youngster is Jess. And no ,” Clint said the word “no” loudly to emphasize it, “we won’t be takin’ your weapons.”
“But—” the young man introduced as Jess began to protest.
“We ain’t got time for this, boy,” another man snarled.
“Follow us and we will explain on the way.” Clint motioned with his arm for them to come.
Kevin was now more curious than anything else. He jumped from the bridge and turned to offer a hand to Catie. No surprise, she ignored his hand and jumped down beside him with a flip of her hair and a withering glance. The couple hurried and fell in step with the group of men.
“About three weeks ago, folks over at Rock Ridge, that’s the place you saw burning, they had some sort of illness hit them pretty hard. The problem was that Rock Ridge has the highest number of immune citizens. Over half of their population is known to be immune from the bite. Actually, lots of folks from our little town and the folks at Red Hill move to Rock Ridge when they find out they are immune—” Clint explained, but then Kevin had to interrupt.
“Is that still a common occurrence? The part about finding out if you are immune? I mean, I don’t know about here, but from what we have seen, the zombies are sort of coming together in larger and larger herds. The days of being bitten are almost as rare as a shark attack used to be back in the day.” Kevin saw the expressions on the faces of his “hosts” as they all reacted to his question. Something was up.
“Yeah…” Clint let
“C’mon, man, you take me for a fool?”
“Excuse me?” Kevin asked with a touch of confusion.
“Ain’t nobody come all the way out here from that far. Hell, you would have to have been on the road for—”
“Just over eleven months,” Kevin interrupted. “And I am not trying to take you for a fool. That is the truth.”
“And what brings y’all the way out here?” the man challenged.
“My family had a cabin in these parts back in the day. I came to see if maybe my mom or sister might have made it and perhaps still be living there.”
“I’m terribly sorry.” A man emerged from the bushes off to Kevin’s left, two more coming out as well, and then four more to the right. “I take it the place was empty.”
“Sort of.” Kevin let that answer hang in the air for a second to sink in. As it did, he saw knowing bobs of the head.
“Well, if’n you’re tellin’ the truth, I still need to ask what business brings you down here,” the man finally said after a moment of silence that seemed to be more out of polite respect than anything else.
“We saw three towns from where we camped last night,” Catie spoke up, deciding that she needed to assert that she was on equal footing. There was a trend in some communities to treat women almost as possessions or second-class citizens. It was always best to clear those sorts of thing up early.
“Also saw that there is a fire burning at one of them,” Kevin added. The faces on the men standing on the other side of the lazy river all reacted in some manner. He saw a mix of anger, agitation…and fear. “Look, we can understand if we aren’t welcome at the moment,” Kevin continued when none of them spoke.
“Actually, it might be best if you were to come with us back to Falling Run…that’s our little town,” the man who was obviously the spokesman of the group said.
Kevin glanced at Catie who gave a slight shrug. He turned back to the man and his group. “Okay.”
“Ain’t you gonna take their weapons first?” a younger man asked as Kevin and Catie finished crossing the bridge.
“We can stop and go back.” Kevin came to an abrupt halt just as he was about to step off the bridge. “We don’t give up our things. If that is a problem, then we will gladly turn around and leave.”
“Name’s Clint,” the man who had originally been talking to them said, casting a nasty look over his shoulder. “The youngster is Jess. And no ,” Clint said the word “no” loudly to emphasize it, “we won’t be takin’ your weapons.”
“But—” the young man introduced as Jess began to protest.
“We ain’t got time for this, boy,” another man snarled.
“Follow us and we will explain on the way.” Clint motioned with his arm for them to come.
Kevin was now more curious than anything else. He jumped from the bridge and turned to offer a hand to Catie. No surprise, she ignored his hand and jumped down beside him with a flip of her hair and a withering glance. The couple hurried and fell in step with the group of men.
“About three weeks ago, folks over at Rock Ridge, that’s the place you saw burning, they had some sort of illness hit them pretty hard. The problem was that Rock Ridge has the highest number of immune citizens. Over half of their population is known to be immune from the bite. Actually, lots of folks from our little town and the folks at Red Hill move to Rock Ridge when they find out they are immune—” Clint explained, but then Kevin had to interrupt.
“Is that still a common occurrence? The part about finding out if you are immune? I mean, I don’t know about here, but from what we have seen, the zombies are sort of coming together in larger and larger herds. The days of being bitten are almost as rare as a shark attack used to be back in the day.” Kevin saw the expressions on the faces of his “hosts” as they all reacted to his question. Something was up.
“Yeah…” Clint let
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