Chapter 21 - Hunted
It's Kenny. It's really him.
"Ian, you know this guy?" Luke asks.
"Not just me. Carley and Clem know him too. Kenny was in our group back in Georgia. Man's saved my life more times than I can think of."
"Clem's alive?" He smiles brightly. Sure enough, Clem makes her way to the front and runs towards Kenny for a big hug. Carley hugs him, too.
After a few minutes, Kenny gets up, and with a warm smile, nods to the inside. "We can talk inside."
"Great." One of his friends says, a large, balding man with a red sweater. "I just started dinner." He, Kenny, and the third person, a tan woman, maybe a few years younger than Kenny, lead us into the building.
I stare in awe at the sight before me. Lights. Not like a flashlight, but actual Christmas lights. I hadn't seen Christmas lights since Carley and I were dating. And music. Christmas music. And to top it all off, a giant Christmas tree. Wow. In all this mess, I almost forgot that it's almost Christmas. My favorite holiday. Wait, if they have lights, that must mean they have electricity? How?
"Kenny and Sarita have been staying with us for a few months. This used to be a ski lodge, obviously, so we have plenty of food. And we still get some power from the wind turbine over there. We tend to keep the lights off at night to avoid attention, but we found all this Christmas stuff in storage downstairs, and we couldn't resist." The man explains as we get settled in.
"Walter here's a smart sonuvabitch." Kenny says with a chuckle, "And he makes a mean can of beans, too."
"Well why don't you guys catch up while I get dinner started?" Walter suggests. I smile and nod. "You all can leave your things over there" he adds, pointing to a bench by the door. But, the group doesn't seem to keen about this.
"The hell we will." Rebecca shakes her head.
"Yeah I'm gonna hold onto my rifle, thanks" Nick adds.
"Please, you're our guests here. There's nothing to worry about." Walter assures us. I'm hesitant to agree, cause of those lights, but the place seems safe enough.
"Tell him to put his gun down." Nick tells Walter, about Kenny.
"Ian, do you trust these folks?" Ken asks me.
"With my life. They're good people Kenny. You can trust them." I make an example by taking my rifle and setting it down, handgun too. Finally, my machete is propped up against a wall and I'm completely unarmed. My wife does the same with her sidearm and knife, and eventually the others follow suit. Soon enough, we're all unarmed, and it's all good.
"Great," I finally hear Sarita's voice. I can't tell if she's Hispanic or Indian, but either way she seems rather nice. "I'll show you where you can sleep." She leads most of the group upstairs except me, Carley, Mia, Clem, and Kenny. We decide to stay back and catch up with Kenny, or in Mia's case, introduce her to Kenny.
"Mia, this is Kenny. Ken, this is my little sister, Mia."
"Sister? So you did have family out there, after all."
"So I did. And I'm damn happy about it." I grin. It doesn't get old. "Kenny saved my ass a number of times in Savannah. And I thought he gave himself up so Carley and I could get out of there."
"Yeah, speaking of which, how'd you get out of there? You were surrounded. There was no way out of there, so I have no clue how you got out of that, unscathed no less." My wife asks as Kenny leads us toward a fire and a couple couches.
"Well, I could bore you with all the details, but long story short, I got lucky. Well, lucky ain't the half of it. I couldn't have been luckier. Was on my own for a while after that. It felt like years, but it's only been, what, two years? But fortunately, I met Sarita as I was about to hit my breaking point. She helped bring me back down and for that, I'm grateful. Gosh, I'm grateful for so much. It's great to have you back." Sarita sits down next to us and kisses Kenny on the cheek.
"You guys catching up?" she asks.
"Guys, this is my girl, Sarita. Sarita, this is Ian, his fiancee, Carley."
"Wife, actually. We got hitched." I grin. He smiles and nods.
"Right. His wife, Carley, his little sister, Mia, and that's Clementine. Everyone but Mia was part of the Savannah group that got separated."
"Nice to meet you all. Kenny has said some very nice things about you all. Ian, he said you used to play professional football?"
"Well, yeah. I never actually got to play, but I was a rookie with the Atlanta Falcons when this started."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. But at least you're alive and safe now."
"Yeah, at least." I shrug and give a half smile, half frown. Of course I'm happy to be alive, but it's still shitty to think about everything. I'd be in my third season at this point. Hopefully a contract extension was to be in order. Maybe I'd be a Falcon for life. That woulda been cool.
I sit by the fire with Carley, cuddling with her and rubbing my knee. The rest does help but it still feels kinda tender. But Walter's voice raises me from my seat in an instant. "Dinner is ready everyone!"
I sit down at a table, next to Walter and across from Kenny and Sarita, to a bowl of beans and some peaches. Not exactly my first choice, but since this started, its the closest thing to a proper meal I've had. And with Walter's hospitality, I will never complain.
"So, Luke's the one in charge? Do ya trust him?" He asks me as I dig into my food.
I nod. "He's a good guy. I'd trust him with just about anything. He helped keep Mia safe, so he's good in my book."
"I see. So that big guy, Alvin? He said you guys are on the run. Some guys are after you. What's the deal with that?"
"I'll be honest. I'm not really sure. I know the man they're talking about. Older man named Carver. Bit of a creepy guy. But they say he's some cutthroat asshole who'll kill for what he wants without question. We've been running from him for a week, but I'm not sure he's even coming after us."
"Well regardless, you don't gotta worry about him anymore. If they're going tomorrow like they said, you can stay here as long as you like." He suggests, but I cough up the food in my mouth at the suggestion.
I sigh and frown, knowing I can't, "Kenny, I can't just leave them. And besides, Carver knows who I am. I got a feeling he knows that I'm with them. I gotta stick with them, man. I can't let you get involved with this. It ain't fair to any of you that we come into your place and drag you into our problems. If they're leaving in the morning, I gotta stay with them."
Kenny frowns at my rejection of his offer, but I offer a bit of consolation. "If it means anything, I would've hands down accepted your offer if we weren't being chased. This isn't an easy decision, but it'll be the better one for you guys. If by some miracle, this situation gets handled with, and the offer is still on the table, I'll gladly reconsider."
"Offer's always on the table, kid. You do you. Do what you gotta do. I get it." Kenny gives me a warm smile and I return it. With one last gulp, I swallow down the last of my beans, and place my dish in the sink, along with several others.
Kenny and Luke and Nick start squabbling over something. Kenny mentions something called Wellington, and suddenly a whole political debate is sparked over it.
"I'm telling you guys, Wellington is the solution. There's fresh water, plenty of land, and cold-ass winters. It'll slow the walkers down."
"This guy's full of it. He knows nothing about this place. We don't even know if it's real." Nick counters.
I patiently watch from the sidelines, listening to Kenny's claims about this magical place called Wellington way up north in Michigan. I know one thing about Michigan, it gets cold in the winter. So maybe Kenny's claims have some merit, but who really knows? I'm interrupted in my own thoughts by Kenny jutting me in.
"Ian, you used to play football. Did you guys ever go up to Michigan at any time?"
"We played Michigan State once. We beat them in the Capital One Bowl in 2009. I had a torn ACL and couldn't play, but we beat 'em. But that game was in Florida. So, to answer your question, no, I haven't been to Michigan myself. I just know it gets cold as hell there in the winter."
"Exactly. That'll slow the walkers down. Makes them easier to deal with." Kenny and the others continue to debate Wellington, but I decide to excuse myself for some air.
Despite my southern roots, I like the cold sometimes. The feeling of a cold breeze is sometimes refreshing. I've only seen snow one time in my life, during a trip to Boston when I was a kid, and I remember being fascinated by it. That, and throwing countless snowballs at little Mick. This is not too much different. A little too warm for snow, but plenty cold enough to be cold. The wind starting to pick up, maybe a storm coming.
"Matthew likes coming out here too," Walter joins me and the two of us sit on chairs in a small patio. "Thinking, talking about life, even just taking in the view."
"I just needed some air. I really hate having to be on the divide. Cause I owe Kenny everything, but I also owe my guys everything. Hell, Alvin and Rebecca saved my sister's life at the start of this shit. I didn't know she was alive until a week and a half ago. I can't just leave them. And then this guy, Carver, that may be following us. I don't know what to do, man."
Walter puts a hand on my shoulder in support. "When I met Matthew, I didn't really know what to think. I was raised in very Catholic household, but Matthew and I developed an emotional bond that went past what I was taught. I made a decision to be happy with myself, and it's up to you to do the same here. Not necessarily with homosexuality, but you need to make a decision and stick with it. It's not going to be easy. It won't be smooth. But you need to be confident with whatever you pick. You really can't go wrong with either decision. So you just have to decide which you see as more important."
I smile, but he probably can't see it in the dark all that well. "Thanks. Really. I don't know if that made the decision-making any easier, but you definitely helped me think about it."
"Anytime, son."
"Hey fellas. What're you up to?" I hear Kenny's voice behind us.
"Oh, Ian and I were just talking about politics." Why would Walter lie about that? That's weird. "Kenny, being from Florida, you'd know a thing or two about that wouldn't you?"
"Man don't even get me started on that shit. One advantage of living in the apocalypse is not having to deal with that shit no more." He hands me a glass bottle of lukewarm beer and we clink bottles. Haven't had beer since the Bud Light back at the motor inn ran dry.
"Gentlemen, this world has gone to shit. And we are gonna fix it. One day at a time. There's still good in this world of evil. It's our job to show that to the rest of the world."
"Nice words, Walter." I compliment his little speech.
"Hey, I'm gonna check the windows before this storm starts. Can you fellas help?" Kenny starts walking before we can even nod our heads. Guess so. We turn out back to find a scrawny woman, with red hair, looking into the cabin. What she's looking for, well, I have a couple assumptions.
"Excuse me, miss?" Walter asks her, and she jumps back a little, startled.
"Please, do you have any food?" She shakily asks.
"Are you ok?"
"Please, I saw the house and… I have a family. We're starving."
"Of course why don't you come in Miss…."
"Bonnie."
"I don't like this, man" Kenny whispers to me.
"You and me both. This seems a little off. But let's see where it goes." I respond, keeping my eyes on the woman.
"If we get shot cause of it, I'm coming for you in hell."
"Noted."
Minutes later, Walter comes out with a box of food for Bonnie and her family. Plenty of food. More than I would expect anyone to give away, frankly. But, Walter's a generous guy. Can't say I blame him for helping. Anyways, she goes on our way and we're not shot, so I guess it could've gone worse. I down the rest of my beer and walk inside to get ready for bed. With all that's happened today, and after all that's happened this past week, I might just sleep for a couple days. I go to where Carley's sleeping, and I snuggle up next to her. Her light snoring and the wind slowly picking up as the storm comes in reach my ears, creating a rather peaceful combination. The whirring noise of the windmill slowly gets louder and faster, but that can't be an issue, right?
Despite me falling asleep, it was an issue, actually. The commotion of people in a frenzy, trying to turn it off wakes me before I'm too deep into my sleep, it was going too fast, and the faster it went, the louder it got, thus attracting more walkers.
So, a group worked on turning off the windmill, and another kept watch for walkers. I was put on the lookout group. I don't have much of an issue with that, not knowing much about electricity and generators. But as Kenny inspects the windmill, a booming noise behind us. Like a rifle shot from a distance. But it's actually a transformer. Kenny and Luke go to fix it, leaving the rest of us to look at it. Someone goes in and looks at it. I'm not sure. I was more fixated on the potential walkers from the treeline.
"I see movement, in the trees." Carlos motions towards the treeline, where sure enough, a walker come stumbling at us. Actually, a few.
"Let's take care of them." I tell him as the whirring down of the windmill indicates that whoever was working on it, stopped it.
"We don't have much ammo." He warns.
"Then make it count. Try to get back to the lodge." I start popping shots with the glocke, downing the walkers one by one and soon enough, so is everyone else. Dozens of walkers, soon dead at the ground, but our ammo was starting to run out, and it seemed like there was still a surplus of walkers.
I was the first to hear the damned click noise. "Fuck! I'm out."
"Get to the Lodge! Hurry!" Carlos yells as he struggles with a walkers before taking it down with a headshot. I run over to the front of the lodge, where my wife runs out, holding my 700. She tosses it to me, and in the pale moonlight, I pop one more walker in the chaos.
Just as it seems we're about to be overrun, Some popping comes from the treeline. Automatic Gunfire. The remaining walkers are dealt with before I see who is helping us. Brown jacket, Bushy mustache, and a shiteating grin on his face.
Bill Carver
He found us. Along with him, Bonnie. Of fucking course she is. She tricked us.
"Howdy folks," He says with that stupid grin. We're surrounded. His men point Ak-47 rifles at us. He's won. We're caught. "Where's Rebecca?" He asks Carlos. To that, he spits in Carver's face. In response to that, Carver punches him in the jaw. One shot, knocks him out. He motions us inside and his goons goad us in like some cattle.
Those of us they have, we're tied up immediately. Wrists bound and then completely tied up. Carley comes down with her hands up. She's tied up and put next to me.
"Thanks for not trying anything. I don't think I could deal with another Lilly incident." I whisper to her.
"Figured that was the better idea. Getting shot is not something I want to have to do twice." She whispers back, a little louder.
"Hey. Shut the hell up." One of his goons walks up to us. Tall, scrawny bastard. Heavy Southern accent. Patchy beard and everything.
"Fuck you. Go fuck your cousin or something, you white trash hick." My wife snaps back. God damn. I did not expect that out of her.
He grabs her by the throat and grins, with a slight chuckle. "Feisty one, ain't you. Maybe I'll fuck you, instead, baby. Yeah look at those titties. Oh boy those are nice. And those lips. God damn. I bet you give the best blowjobs. Yeah, I think I will fuck you." This asshole has said two things to my wife, and he's already waaaaaay crossed the line.
"Keep your hands off my wife, you slimey son of a bitch." I growl.
"You're her husband? You're hittin' that? Well ok then." I take a swift kick to the ribs and I get the wind knocked out of me. "I don't give a damn. Hell, maybe I'll do her more then." He kicks me in the ribs again. And again. And again.
"Troy. Cut the shit, and find the others. Stop fucking around." Carver yells at him from across the room. He timidly agrees and starts searching.
"Troy better be careful before he winds up with a bullet in his brain. Or my boot on his neck." I whisper to my wife again.
"I wouldn't mind." She agrees.
Carver walks down the line of us until he reaches the end, pulling Carlos up and putting him to the middle of the room. With a punch to the gut, Carlos goes down again and Carver stands over him menacingly.
"I'm only gonna ask you this once," he says, "Where is Rebecca?"
"Fuck you" He mutters in defiance. Carver grabs his wrist, not fucking around, and snaps his finger, like a twig. Carlos and Sarah both cry out at his pain, and Carver sends an explicit message to Rebecca, wherever she's hiding.
"Rebecca, our baby deserves to be raised in a place of safety. I know you're out there. And Alvin. And Luke. And the girl. Clementine, I wanna say? Clementine "Madsen"? C'mon Ian, you gotta do better than that. How dumb do you think I am?"
"Fuck" I sigh. He knew. He knew all along. God damn it.
"This'll all be over quickly if you play nice, and show your faces." He snaps another one of Carlos's fingers.
"God damn it! Shoot him! Someone just shoot him!" Carlos yells through his pain as Carver puts a blade to his throat.
A third snap, and Carlos yells even louder. "Last warning. Come out, or I'll kill this son of a bitch."
The creaking of stairs above me indicates that Alvin and Rebecca are done testing him. He finally won. Carver was playing mind games and he beat us. But wait. Where's Clem?
CRACK
A rifle shot comes through the window, and one of Carver's men goes down for good. Son of a bitch. It's Kenny.
Not to be outdone. Carver grabs Walter and walks him out. Revolver drawn, he shoves Walt to the ground and executes him. His brains and blood splatters on the floor but all I can do is stare at the gruesome sight before me.
"Walter no!" My wife cries out. But it's no use, he's dead. Bullet in the head.
"That's for killing my man!" Carver yells out to Kenny. "Now I didn't want to do this, but you're leaving me no choice. So here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna march one of your friends out here, and put a bullet in the back of their head. Or you can give up now. Your choice." Another rifle shot narrowly misses Carver's head, finding its home in a pillar of wood.
"Damn it Kenny! Stop!" I yell out to him. But another rifle shot rings out, barely missing Carver's head once again, so he looks for his next victim. He stops in front of me with a devilish smile on his face. Guess that's me.
"Ian Sullivan. Brother of Mia Sullivan. College football standout for the Georgia Bulldogs. Drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 2010, and proposed to his girlfriend on national television like a pompous douchebag." He pulls me up by the collar of my jacket and I'm face to face with him, once again. This time, a .44 Magnum is pointed at my temple. One shot from that could blow my head clean off.
"Do it. Do it motherfucker. I fuckin' dare you." I smirk at him. Something. Just something tells me he's bluffing. I don't know what it is. Just my gut feeling.
"Kenny Stop!" My wife says through the tears. "Don't kill him! Don't!"
He walks me out, just as he did with Walter. Right out in the open. This was clearly a scare tactic. He keeps me upright, as a meat shield. He doesn't want me dead, he wants Kenny to give himself up.
Kenny comes out from his position, hands raised with rifle in hand, surrendering. Next to him, an unarmed Clementine. Now, Carver has all of us. Well, except Luke. But who knows where Luke is. Bonnie kicks open the door and points her AK-47 at Kenny and Clem, motioning for them to join us.
"Where's Luke?" Carver asks us, slowly pacing down the line. We look at each other, but no one knows, so we remain silent. "Finally cut and run, eh? Why am I not surprised? I warned you. I warned you not to follow him. And look where he's led you. But you're safe now. We're going home. As a family." He smiles toward Rebecca.
"Round 'em up. We're heading back to camp."