Dead South | Book 2 | Dead Lies Read online

  Joey stood guard and let him in. Jon thanked him before seeing Brooke strolling toward him.

  “You’re up early,” she said.

  Jon chuckled. “You really don’t know me all that well.”

  “Well, we’re working on that.” Brooke smiled.

  “Where’s Lucas? I haven’t seen him around much.”

  “Still sleeping. That kid could sleep past lunch if I let him. Usually, I get him up pretty early, but he didn’t sleep well last night. Bad dreams.”

  Jon wanted to pry and ask if the nightmares were a common occurrence for the boy, but he decided to refrain.

  “Where you headed?” Brooke asked.

  Jon shrugged. “Nowhere in particular.”

  “Mind if I walk with you?”

  Jon shook his head, and they walked side-by-side into the center of Hope’s Dawn. More people had made their way outside since an hour ago when Jon had walked down to the pond, and they greeted the two as they strolled.

  “I appreciate you backing me up at dinner last night,” Brooke said.

  “To be clear, I wasn’t exactly backing you up. I just agree with you that we can’t stand by and do nothing. There’s a lot to say for the life Hugo wants, but we can’t stand around and pretend like there aren’t threats out there. You all can’t make the same mistake you made with the Vultures.”

  Brooke bowed her head, not responding right away. Jon felt a shift in her mood and called her on it. After a moment, she looked up, wetting her lips.

  “I don’t know if you notice, but you say ‘you all’ a lot when talking about Hope’s Dawn. You’re one of us now, you know. You aren’t still thinking about leaving, are you?”

  Jon shook his head. “It’s just a habit. I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

  And it was true. While Jon had considered leaving before, he felt at home now in Hope’s Dawn. He realized it would take some time to find his place in the camp, but he’d accepted that.

  Brooke smiled. “Good.”

  As they passed the hospital, Jon glanced over and saw Dennis, the camp’s doctor, standing outside. He had one hand on his hip and his other covering his face. Brooke followed Jon’s gaze and saw the doctor, as well. She then lightly hit Jon on the arm with the back of her hand and headed over to Dennis.

  “Dennis,” Brooke said. “Is everything alright?”

  The doctor uncovered his face and looked up. He tried to hide his red cheeks, nervously rubbing them and then wiping under his eyes. Then he gave in, shaking his head.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Things are hard here, Brooke. We really weren’t prepared for this type of thing. You know, having all these folks injured from battle wounds.”

  “Everyone’s recovering, though, right?”

  “They’re stable for now, but we’re running out of essential supplies.”

  “Like what?” Jon asked.

  “Mostly antibiotics and disinfectants. That stuff was already in short supply around here, but you have to understand how fast it goes with all these gun and knife wounds. No one in there is going to die from internal injuries at this point, but if we can’t keep those open wounds clean, the threat of infection is real.”

  “How much do you have left of what you need?” Brooke asked.

  Dennis shrugged. “Maybe another few days’ worth, at best. Again, we aren’t dealing with small cuts here. But we’re doing our best.”

  Brooke patted the doctor on the shoulder. “We know you are. And we’re going to do our best to help you out.”

  “You’re going to go try to find some?” the doctor asked. “We’ve pretty much scavenged everywhere within at least twenty-five miles of here and found nothing.”

  “Maybe it’s time to go beyond those twenty-five miles then,” Jon said.

  “Maybe,” Brooke said, turning her attention back to Dennis. “We’ll see what we can come up with.” She put her hand on his shoulder again. “Just hang in there. Those people in there need you.”

  The doctor nodded, taking a deep breath before he turned around and headed back into the hospital. Brooke then looked at Jon, whose concern echoed onto her face.

  “We need to go talk to Hugo and Garrett now.”

  “Terrence should be there, too,” Jon said. “You go get Hugo and Garrett, and bring them to our place. I’ll head over and make sure Terrence is awake.”

  7

  Terrence threw on a shirt and staggered out of his bedroom like one of the infected. He rubbed his eyes.

  “This better be good. It’s been a minute since I’ve slept that well.”

  “Good probably isn’t the right word.”

  “What’s going on?”

  Jon put his hands on his hips, pacing the room. “Just wait until the others get here and we’ll catch everyone up at once.”

  A couple of minutes later, a cautionary knock came at the door, and then Brooke entered, followed by Garrett and Hugo. They converged in the living room, where everyone but Jon and Terrence took a seat. Garrett removed his camouflage baseball cap from his head and leaned forward onto his knees, clasping his hands together.

  “What’s going on?”

  Jon looked at Brooke and nodded, and she explained the encounter with Dennis earlier that morning. She went so far as to describe the stress and fear that had been in the doctor’s face.

  “It was serious,” she said.

  “How long did he say we had?” Hugo asked.

  “The way things are going, a few days, at the most,” Jon said.

  “But we’re just talking about running out of antibiotics and maybe rubbing alcohol, right?” Terrence asked. “There’s no guarantee that any of the wounded are going to catch an infection.”

  “But there’s no guarantee they won’t, either,” Brooke said. “We’re also running low on other basic supplies, like clean gauze and hand soap. And what if another attack comes? We can’t be caught without the supplies we need.”

  “We’re going to have to go find some,” Jon said.

  Hugo crossed his arms and scoffed. “Easier said than done, ese. We’ve scavenged just about everywhere within a twenty-five-mile radius.”

  Jon had, too. It had been months since he’d seen any useful medical supplies, and he doubted their unfortunate circumstance was going to change their luck. He shrugged. “We’re going to have to search farther out, then.”

  “That’s risky,” Terrence said. “There are reasons we’ve stayed within twenty to twenty-five miles of the camp. Besides not knowing who or what is out there, we’ve got to conserve gasoline.”

  “Yeah, and that’s even more of a problem now, with the Vultures gone,” Hugo added. “They were supplying us with gas so we could go out and pick shit up for them. We got what we could from their camp after the fight, but it’s not going to last forever.”

  “They had to have more than just what was there if they were supplying it to you,” Jon said.

  “If they did, we don’t know where they would have been getting it from,” Brooke said.

  Everyone went quiet as they thought. Jon knew they were going to have to travel farther out to try to find the supplies they needed. He also knew he could move faster and save gas if he took his bike. He could go about two hundred miles on a single five-gallon tank. But he also knew the others wouldn’t be down with that plan. They wouldn’t want to let Jon go out on his own, even though he’d survived just fine by himself before becoming a part of Hope’s Dawn. But things had changed now, and he was part of their community. He wanted to do what was best for everyone.

  As he pondered the situation, Jon noticed that Garrett had been silent the entire time. He glanced over at the camp leader, and they locked eyes. Jon put his hands on his waist. “What do you think, Garrett?”

  Garrett glanced down at the ground for a moment, playing with his hands where they were still clasped together. Then he looked around at the others.

  “What about Taylorville?”

  Jon raised an eyebrow, un
sure of the place Garrett was referring to. Finally, he looked around to study the others’ faces to see if they knew what the other man was talking about.

  “Hell, no,” Terrence said.

  “I don’t know, Garrett,” Hugo added. “It was pretty crazy up there.”

  Jon’s brow furrowed. “What’s in Taylorville?”

  “It’s a little town about thirty miles north of here,” Brooke explained. “Terrence, Hugo, and a few others made a run up there about three months ago.”

  “The place was swarming with the infected,” Terrence said.

  Hugo shook his head, clearly recalling the memory. “It was crazy. I don’t know how we all made it out of there alive.”

  “Have you gone back since?” Jon asked.

  “No way,” Terrence said.

  “We haven’t wanted to risk it after what they saw,” Garrett said.

  Jon paused. “If that horde has been hanging around for a while, then you all might not be the only ones who were scared to go there.”

  “Meaning that the town might be mostly untouched,” Brooke said. “It could be a gold mine in there.”

  “Maybe,” Garrett said. “But we’ve also heard there’s another camp up around that area. Never actually seen it, but I can’t think that folks there would have let a bunch of supplies just sit in that place.”

  “What other options do we have?” Jon asked, looking around the room.

  The others took several moments to think, but no one came up with another solution.

  “I think the silence says that we know what we have to do, then,” Jon said.

  “Fuck, man,” Terrence said.

  “You don’t have to go,” Garrett said to him.

  “No, no. I’m in.”

  “Me, too,” Brooke said.

  Jon wanted to fight her, but he knew better. He also trusted her. If he was going to head to Taylorville with a small team, he wanted it to be with Terrence and Brooke. There was no one else in Hope’s Dawn who he trusted more.

  “This sound good with you?” Jon asked Garrett.

  The camp leader nodded. “I don’t see any other options as of now. So, I think the best thing to do is to come up with a plan and figure out how you guys are going to get in there and then get your asses out safely.”

  Jon stood in his bedroom, preparing to head out on the run. They’d decided to head out that same morning. Time was short, leaving no reason to wait. The group of leaders had agreed that Jon, Brooke, and Terrence would head out alone. The three of them worked well together and trusted each other, and there was no reason to risk anyone else. Together, they’d be able to maneuver out of a dangerous situation more quickly than with others there, and taking only three people also left more room in a vehicle to bring any supplies back.

  Jon turned to leave his bedroom, stopping at his bed before exiting. He’d laid his hatchet, bat, and pistol on the bed so that he wouldn’t forget them. Picking up the gun first, he placed it into his holster and put extra ammunition in his pocket. Then he raised the bat up to his face, taking a moment to study the barrel. The various splats of blood, each with their own unique shape, reminded him of the hell he’d been through himself in merely trying to find an escape. The bat had been there with him, and he knew its days of zombie-slaying were far from over. He fastened it to his back, then picked up the hatchet and did the same.

  He headed into the living room, where Terrence waited for him.

  “You about ready to go?” Terrence asked. “We got the truck loaded up.”

  Jon nodded, and they headed out the door. Brooke stood waiting by the truck, leaning her back against the side of it with her arms folded on the edge of the bed. Garrett and Hugo were there, too, and most residents of Hope’s Dawn had come outside, as well.

  Jon approached the single-cab pickup truck and peeked into the bed of it. They’d loaded an automatic rifle for each of them, on top of a shotgun and extra ammunition for each weapon.

  “This should be plenty for a quick day-trip up there,” Brooke said.

  “Let’s hope so,” Jon replied.

  “Y’all just be careful,” Garrett said. “Don’t do anything stupid. Assess the situation, and if things look sketchy, make your way on back here. There’s always tomorrow.”

  “We’ll be careful,” Brooke said.

  Brooke then saw her son approaching and smiled as she went to him. Jon watched the two embrace and felt a knot in his stomach. The moment made him think again about Carrie and Spencer, and he took a deep breath to fight himself back from becoming visibly emotional. A tap on his arm from Garrett pulled him out of it.

  “Keep an eye on her out there. Sometimes she gets a little too brave for her own good. She’s strong as hell, but I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

  Jon watched as Brooke kissed her seven-year-old son on the forehead. “She’ll be just fine.”

  “And hopefully, we’ll have some antibiotics with us,” Terrence added.

  Garrett sighed. “I hope so, too.”

  As Brooke kissed her son goodbye, Jon vaulted over the side of the truck and into the bed of it. Terrence headed around to the driver’s side and got in. As she came back to the truck, Brooke smiled at Jon.

  “Hey, I wanted to ride back there.”

  Jon shrugged and grinned. “You snooze, you lose.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe I’ll beat you to that spot on the way back.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Brooke loaded into the passenger seat as Terrence cranked the truck to life. He then pulled away, heading for the front gate as Jon waved at Hope’s Dawn’s residents. The cool wind blew through his hair as dirt kicked up around him, and he watched the camp fade into the distance.

  8

  Malcolm relished the way the people of Black Hill looked at him.

  It was as if a ghost were walking through the town each time he left his house. And there was little reason for him to ever leave. He had everything he needed there, and anything that he didn’t, he could order someone to bring to him. Malcolm had his own personal library with hundreds of books. He had a dedicated space to work out, with dumbbells, a punching bag, and even a couple of weight machines. And every meal was brought to him each day. But every few days, it was vital for him to show his face. To remind the people of Black Hill who was in charge and who was keeping them safe and comfortable.

  On this morning, he’d sent word to Bryce that he would be coming to meet him instead of having a meeting in his study, as was the norm. He would be seen, and remind people what there was to fear.

  Malcolm used a small cloth to wipe the smudge off of his glasses. Then he put on his green jacket, tucking the pendulum necklace underneath his shirt, and headed for the door.

  As he stepped out onto the porch and made his way down the steps into the yard, Malcolm enjoyed the morning breeze passing over his bald head. He glanced around and immediately saw those looks he often got. Several people, whose names Malcolm never went out of his way to learn, had already made their way outside. Most were working, doing their part to support the community—something everyone did if they didn’t want to be punished by banishment or worse. A couple of women and their kids had also come outside to simply enjoy the morning.

  All eyes present landed on Malcolm, and those looks he thrived on came. People were scared of Malcolm Storm, and he planned on keeping it that way. In an empty world filled with anguish, fear was a powerful weapon.

  He made his way through the community, keeping his eyes forward and never acknowledging at anyone. But he could feel the eyes on him, nonetheless.

  When he reached the place he’d be meeting Bryce, which had previously been a merchandise shop for tourists in this once quaint mountain town, two guards stood outside the door.

  “He’s waiting for you inside, sir,” one of them said.

  Malcolm didn’t acknowledge the man. What he’d said hadn’t been necessary anyway. Bryce knew better than to keep Malcolm waiting and would always mak
e sure to arrive on time.

  Malcolm made his way inside.

  They had cleared out most of the shelving inside of the retail shop, leaving the central space mostly empty now. Bryce stood at a table in the middle of the room, resting on his elbow with his head in his hand. He let out a long sigh before looking up and seeing that Malcolm had entered the room. His posture quickly changed as he stood up straight, clearing his throat.

  “Sorry, Malcolm. I didn’t hear you enter.”

  “It’s alright, Bryce,” the leader said in a steady voice. “It’s been a long couple of days for all of us.”

  “It has, and I fear they’re only going to get longer.”

  Malcolm kept a straight face. “Things are going to be fine.”

  Bryce stared at Malcolm for a moment, being careful to pick his words. “Sir, with all due respect, I’m not so sure that’s the case. We no longer have the Vultures running operations for us. That means that none of the three camps we were garnering resources from are bringing us anything anymore.”

  “The Vultures will be fine. I’ve already put a new leader in charge.”

  Exhaling, Bryce worked to keep his cool. Malcolm could see the frustration in his face. Bryce put both his palms down on the table, looking down at it for a moment before glancing back up.

  “The people of Black Hill, they’re scared. News is spreading, Malcolm. They’re worried that the same thing that happened to the Vultures is going to happen to us. They’re afraid that—”

  “That he is going to come and kill us,” Malcolm said, cutting Bryce off.

  Bryce looked down at the table again and nodded.

  Malcolm was the most patient and stoic of men, but even he could lose his cool now and again. He felt his stomach knot and the hairs on his arm stand up. He slammed his fists down on the table, causing Bryce to stand straight up.

  “The only thing the people here should fear is me!” Malcolm yelled. “Do you understand me? I’m not going to let some vigilante come in and try to tear down everything I’ve built here. My only priority is to find him and to make an example of him. Imagine what will happen when Hope’s Dawn and others see their hero’s head mounted at the end of a stick! They’ll be crawling back to us, begging for our help. Do you understand me?”