Author's note: I was sure that chapter 8 would be the final chapter but it grew and grew and a lot happened in it, so I cut it in two.
Chapter 8 – A fool's paradise
´They? There are only tools in the barn Sheldon,´ Hershel said.
´There are zombies in there. I heard them!´
´You heard the wind,´ the farmer said with a strained smile. ´Now we're distracting Penny from guarding I'm afraid. Why don't you go back to your impressive manuals Sheldon, then I'll fetch some tools and return to assist Howard in making a partition-wall. He's very good in dividing space.´
Hershel confidently nodded at them and walked toward the barn.
´Penny!´ Sheldon whispered urgently, ´I heard them.´
Penny looked from the barn to the house and she shivered. Sheldon again whispered her name as if she needed to be convinced.
OoOoOoO
When Penny and Sheldon rounded a corner of the barn they saw Hershel step from a ladder unto the barn's attic. Penny – reasoning that the zombies would somehow be confined – climbed up, followed by Sheldon.
´Stop it right there young lady!´ Hershel ordered when he noticed her. He held gloves, a hammer and a leveling-instrument. Penny ignored him and Sheldon didn't heed the warning either.
´This is none of your business! Leave!´ Hershel tried but his guests had entered the attic and stared at the barn's ground floor. It was filled with zombies.
Sheldon was the first to find his tongue: ´What possessed you doctor Greene?´
´These are my family and friends,´ Hershel said. 'I give them shelter and food until someone finds a cure for their illness.´
A muscle near Sheldon's eye started twitching. ´Food?! Are you crazy sir?!´
Taking a step toward the edge of the floor Hershel gestured toward a particular zombie: ´She is my wife!´
The zombie was among those that reached out to Hershel.
´See? She recognizes me. Penny, put away that bow!´
´It recognizes meat,´ Sheldon said, ´And so do the others. Now tell me sir: do sick people survive an arrow in their heart?´
´Of course not.´
´Shoot one Penny.´
Hershel took a step toward Penny. ´Don't even think of it! They are sick! They don't hurt anyone. My farm my barn my say!´
A hand appeared on top of the ladder followed by a head. Jimmy entered the attic.
´Saw you go up,´ he told Hershel. ´Came to see if you're all right.´
Hershel inclined his head. ´Everything is fine. I'll fetch some stuff and then we're leaving.´
´You knew about this?´ Sheldon asked Jimmy.
The boy glanced at the excited zombies and defiantly replied: ´Yeah. They don't do harm. You just have to know how to handle them.´
Hershel smiled approvingly. ´Can you help me fetch the clothes-wringer Jim?´
´Sure.´
´We are already using one,´ Hershel chatted, ´but with Rick's people joining us we're going to need more of everything.´
Penny looked from Sheldon to the zombies to Hershel, who was now whistling, possibly to counter the snarling of his family and friends on the floor. The wringer stood between other stuff. Jimmy and Hershel pulled at it together which proved to be inconvenient. Jimmy, young and strong, told Hershel that he'd try it alone.
They're crazy! Sheldon mouthed. Penny agreed but mixed with the anger she felt was a tinge of sadness. She launched an arrow. The sound of it made Hershel stop giving instructions to Jimmy. He looked from Penny to the zombies. None of them had gone down.
´You are lucky you missed,´ Hershel said. His eyes had turned into slits.
´The one with the green boots,´ Penny replied.
Hershel located the patient. In a trembling voice he said: ´You're lucky not to have hit his vital organs.´
´What?!´ Sheldon exclaimed.
´Jim, we must find a way to get Dave out,´ Hershel said, ´I need to remove that arrow from his chest.´
´You ought to be removed from the medical profession sir!´
Jimmy angrily looked at Sheldon and told Hershel that he'd give him a hand. ´Just one more pull, I almost have it.´
The last pull did indeed move the wringer but Jimmy had pulled too hard and the surplus sent him backwards. His right leg dangled above the open space. The zombies made encouraging sounds. Jimmy, startled, wildly moved his arms to balance himself but that didn't help him at all. He hit the ground floor with a thud and cried out in agony. The zombies closed in on him and the first one already dropped itself by his broken leg ere Hershel had found his voice: ´No! That's Jimmy!´
´Mum it's me!´ Jimmy screamed. He awkwardly moved backwards but another hungry zombie bit his shoulder.
´Muuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmm!´ Jimmy wailed. The zombie that used to be his mother sank its teeth in his leg. Hershel yelled at his loved ones to stop. Jimmy kept crying out. Penny moved to another spot on the attic and Sheldon went after her. ´You're not going in Penny!´
´Help him!´ Hershel cried out.
Penny pulled the trigger and cut off Jimmy's cry. Hershel sank to his knees. The pack continued to enjoy their meal; ripping off flesh and sucking on entrails. Sheldon looked aghast. Hershel's upper body slowly swayed backwards and forwards.
Penny thought the farmer was only aware of the hell below him but after eternal seconds he said: ´Kill them. Please. Her too.´
Penny targeted Hershel's late wife. Added to the sounds of the zombies feasting and Hershel's whimpering was the buzzing of a bow. With three arrows left Penny walked around the attic to see if she'd missed anything.
´I think it's clear,´ she concluded. Sheldon made a round too and stood next to her.
´I agree,´ he said.
´The bodies need to be taken care of and I don't want Hershel present,´ Penny whispered. ´Can you take him outside, make him sit down and stay with him if need be?´
Sheldon walked to the farmer and placed his hand on the man's shoulder. A moment later on the older man lost consciousness.
Sheldon shrugged when he saw Penny gaze at him. ´It's just a technique. He'll be fine,´ he said, ´And so will you be when we check the zombies together.´
All Penny could come up with was: ´There's no one guarding on this side now.´
Sheldon checked his watch. ´Daryl is gathering wood but he's scheduled to return in ten minutes.´
OoOoOoO
Penny went to her guard spot and soon enough Daryl walked out of the forest. She gestured him to come to her and told him that Sheldon was helping Mr Greene in the barn and that she was afraid they'd argue again. Could Daryl please stand guard for a while so she could make sure everything was going all right? The taciturn huntsman dropped a dead rabbit and the huge bundle of branches he'd collected and took his stand. Penny made it back to the barn.
OoOoOoO
Sheldon hadn't been idle. He'd found a ladder to descend to the barn's floor as well as several thrown away sheets, a jute bag, an old prong and some rusty spades.
´How's Hershel?´
´He's fine.´
Sheldon was wearing gloves and a nose clip and Penny followed his example. Breathing through your mouth was preferable with the task they'd assigned themselves to. Sheldon lowered and secured the ladder. He put the sheets in the jute bag and threw it down. Neither the meddling with the ladder nor the sound the bag made when it landed revived any zombies.
Penny covered her friend as he slowly descended holding the prong. The ladder cracked and Sheldon and Penny talked about where and how to bury the dead and despite the noise they made there still was no movement on the floor.
The zombies were lying in a heap. As Penny and Sheldon removed more and more bodies their task became harder for they had to step into a pool of slippery blood and at times they couldn't avoid spread out entrails either. They worked in silence.
When they had no more zombies to take care off Penny admitted: ´I didn't intend to jump in after him.´
´Good. It wouldn't have been sensible if you had done that. I would have stopped you.´
Sheldon picked up the jute bag.
´It would be preferable,´ he said after a moment during which they'd taken in the sight of Jimmy, ´if people would just vaporize the moment their brains stop functioning.´
Penny nodded. Sheldon secured Jimmy's neck with the prong like he'd done with the zombies.
´I'm sorry Jimmy,´ Penny said before gently removing her arrow.
Sheldon opened the bag and using the prong and occasionally her feet Penny filled it with those parts of Jimmy that belonged inside his body. When there was nothing hanging out of the boy any more Penny unfolded one of the last sheets. At first she tossed it aside for it had a picture of Snow White on it. The next sheet had neutral grey and white stripes and Penny was ready to use it, when she figured that during the time until the funeral it might get stained. She and Sheldon rolled Jimmy into Snow White (back side up), making sure that his head, which apart from the hole between his eyes wasn't mutilated, remained visible. They laid Jimmy on the floor, away from the zombies.
´This will have to do,´ Penny said. ´I'll see how Hershel is doing.´
She didn't have to go upstairs. The farmer had regained consciousness and tearfully looked at them. He came down the ladder like an old man and stared at his late wife's face; she was the second of five zombies whose bodies were covered by a mot-eaten sheet with faint yellow polka dots.
Penny put an arm around Hershel.
´I'm so sorry,´ she said. She gave him a few moments and then added: ´I will inform your daughters and Patricia and send them here.´
Hershel nodded but Penny wondered whether he had heard her. Sheldon had though and he wasn't pleased.
´You know I feel uncomfortable when people are emotional,´ he whispered. ´What am I supposed to say?´
Penny was just about to tell Sheldon that Hershel needed silence when she saw the farmer's lost expression. Perhaps he needed a distraction.
´Why don't you ask Hershel after the names of his family and friends. You understand? It would be like offering a hurt friend a hot beverage.´
Sheldon wrapped his brain around it and nodded. I can't call them by the Z word and I must act sympathetically, he mouthed.
Right! Penny mouthed back. Sheldon approached Hershel. Penny decided to stay for a moment longer, just in case. Gesturing to a particular zombie Sheldon -in the hushed voice of an undertaker – said: ´I know that this is Dave. Can you tell me his family name?´
´Peters,´ Hershel immediately replied. ´Dave Peters. He was from Houston. He played the piano at parties. Married a woman from the village. Silvia Johanson. She is over there. With the short dark hair and the earrings, see? She was my accountant.´
´An accurate woman no doubt. I like accurate people. Who is the person on Dave's left?´
´That is Marcus Lesser,´ Hershel said. His voice was a little steadier than it had been. ´Used to go to elementary school with my stepson. They remained close friends ever since.´
´True friendship is something to treasure. Is your stepson here also?´
Penny left.
OoOoOoO
Watching the three farmer women (for Maggie had returned from her trip) leave for the barn, Penny felt for them. She was glad that Hershel had recovered enough to await them outside. Beth run into his wide open arms.
´Everything all right?´
Penny looked behind her to see Rick, Shane and T-Dog.
´Do you recall Mr Greene's ideas about zombies?´
´Thinks they're sick right?´ Shane spat.
´He suited the action to the word,´ Penny said. ´He kept his family and friends who had turned in his barn.´
Shane grabbed the pistol Rick had taken with him on his raid and run off.
