A:N/ This is a tough chapter, folks.
Chapter 34: The Volcano's Edge.
EDWARD
"Are we sure about this? It'll take several days to get to the farming town of Carleton County and we'd be with strangers," Emmett said, pacing the room.
"It's not ideal, I'll give you that," I said as I rocked back and forth with Clara sleeping against my shoulder. I liked the feel of her there with the heat and thump of her tiny heart against my chest.
I liked even more how she wasn't crying which as of late was a rare occurrence. We were all feeling the lack of sleep. Just looking around the room at the dark circles and bags under everyone's eyes showed how rough living with a newborn was.
"We need the food, though," I said, hitching her a little higher on my shoulder. "We wouldn't be able to travel that distance to gather enough corn and whatever else we can salvage and still leave this place with people to guard it on our own. I think it's worth the risk."
"I agree with Edward, but I'm still worried about some of them," Bella said.
Leah's reaction to me had upset Bella a lot because she was just as protective of me as I was of her. Knowing about what happened at Garrett's camp, Bella was also extremely distrustful of Tanya and Victoria, both of whom I'd told her had close ties with James. I realized after I left the room that I recognized Victoria as well. I never got to know her, but she used to hang out with James' men at Garrett's camp.
Bella was concerned about how being around Tanya was going to affect me. Just looking at Tanya reminded me of Garrett and what had happened at his camp. Even though she'd been nothing but friendly, I could barely look at her without feeling queasy. How could she have lived with James group for close to a year when he'd murdered her father?
I wondered, not for the first time who the fathers of Tanya and Victoria's children were. As far as I could tell, no one at Camden Head knew for certain. They had their suspicions though, namely Caius and James.
After we'd been ushered out of Tanya and Victoria's apartment, Ben had led us back upstairs. He didn't want us to leave with such a bad experience of his camp. Even though he didn't say it, I knew that Ben wanted our groups to join together. I didn't know whether Carlisle had said anything, but I could tell that he knew we had room to spare in our community.
"I'm so sorry for Leah. She's nearly crazy with grief. Carlisle has actually started her on anti-depressants in order to help her deal with her severe bouts of depression," he said, gesturing for us to take a seat on his couch.
"It's okay. I get it. I'm just so sorry that Sue died protecting me," I said, sincerely.
"Sue was a good woman and once Leah's grief has run its course, you'll see that she is too," Ben said, looking at us with almost a desperate look.
"I have a lot of good people here who are living in a pressure cooker. We need more room and I just don't know where to find it," he said, dragging his hand through his hair. "I don't know how I'm going to keep it all together when winter comes."
Bella grabbed my hand and squeezed it as we watched Ben struggle to regain his composure.
Finally, he looked up at us with a sigh. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to burden you with my problems. They all look to me to fix things and I don't have the answers. For god's sake, before everything happened, I was just a waiter at a restaurant. I had no skills and no plans for the future. Now, look at me."
I nodded. We'd all become people we never expected to be.
Bella reached out and gripped Ben's hand in a comforting gesture.
"We need to leave, so that we'll be home before dark," Bella said, gently. "But do you think I could come back and spend a little time with Mrs. Cope?"
"Of course," Ben said, his eyes lighting up.
"Edward, I know that the guys would like for you and any of your crew to join us at some point and help us plan our trip to Carleton county. It's a lot of farm land to cover," Ben said, looking at me sincerely.
"I think I could do that," I said, looking at Bella to see if she was in agreement.
Bella and I did go back and so did some of the other people in our community. Even Alice and Clara took a trip to Camden Head. I knew that she was getting a little stir crazy with nothing to do but take care of Clara. While she was there, she spent her time with some young mothers and I was surprised by how much her time with them brightened her spirits.
"I know that Jasper would be against it, but I think we should consider bringing them to the community," Alice said, from her place on the couch.
She was watching me and Clara with a soft look in her eyes, but her voice was serious.
We all began speaking at once and I was surprised that the majority of us were actually considering it.
"We have the space and with greater numbers, we'll be able to patrol the walls more easily," Peter said.
Peter was a man of few words, but I took what he said seriously. The most important thing to Peter was Charlotte and he was quick to voice his opinion when he thought something would put her in jeopardy. He'd lived with these people for a little over a year and was still interested in bringing them into our community which said a lot.
The rest of us fell silent, contemplating what it would mean to bring twenty three people into our home.
"Let's wait until after our trip. Being on the road with them surrounded by zombies will give us a better sense of what these people are all about," Emmett said. "Because as the great philosopher Shan Yu said, 'Live with a man 40 years, share his house, his meals, speak on every subject. Then tie him up and hold him over the volcano's edge, and only on that day, you will finally meet the man.'"
I paused, trying to think of where I heard that proverb before.
"You twit, that proverb didn't come from a great philosopher. It's from the TV show Firefly," I said, with a snort.
"Really? Well the meaning still applies," Emmett said with a grin. "When you're surrounded by zombies, it's just like being held over a volcano's edge."
The tension of the moment broken, we agreed to wait until we returned from our trip for food.
BELLA
"So, it's agreed that we'll head straight up Camden South and then make our way across the 33," Ben said, looking at Carl as they poured over the map for the hundredth time.
"We'll start on this side of the county and work our ways west," Carl said, pointing to the east side of the small farming town.
"I'm still not sure about the 33. I'm willing to bet anything that the highway is blocked right in there," Embry Call countered, pointing at a crossroads on the map. "I bet both sides are jammed full of cars from when people tried to get out of the cities."
"I know, I know, but any other direction is too far out of our way. We've been over this, Embry," Carl sighed, running a hand down his face.
"That's not a large stretch of road and our scouts say that we can probably push the vehicles out of the way. It's also worth it to get more fuel," Ben said. "We'll use the dump truck for the corn and other produce we find. That leaves my truck that we can use for other essentials like gas," Ben said. "Then, there's also your truck, which should give us plenty of room. At least for this trip…" he finished, looking at us.
From our community, Eleazar, Emmett, Edward, and I were going. That left Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Peter, and Charlotte to man the walls. We hoped that the trip wouldn't be any more than a couple of days, but we couldn't be sure.
In total, there were three vehicles going, each with three to four passengers. In the dump truck were Carl Banner, Katie Marshall, and Embry Call. In the second truck were Ben, Arnold Clapp, Jared Rayne, and Quil Ateara.
I could tell that even though Katie and Quil were skilled with hunting rifles, both Carl and Ben were not sure about taking them because of their age. However, they needed to leave some of their stronger fighters behind to guard the apartments.
I felt the same about Quil and Katie at first, and voiced it to Edward who looked at me quizzically. It was only then that I realized that they were the same age as us. I could barely believe that we were the same age. Listening to them talk to each other and with Ben, they seemed so young. From what Arnold said, the two of them had survived with their families and had remained quite sheltered until joining up with James' group. Quil's family had found shelter in a warehouse when the dead had only just begun to rise and had stayed there until their food had run out. Quil's father had been a military man and had taught Quil how to defend himself. However, his father was one of the first people that James had gotten rid of and when his mother fought back James killed her too. So Quil had only had to really start dealing with the harsh reality of this world when he joined James' camp. With his parents gone, Claire Young's mother and father had taken Quil into their family. It made sense why Quil seemed to be so protective of Claire and how he'd bristled so much when he was introduced to Edward.
Katie came from a similar situation. Her family had found shelter on a farm where they were able to hold out for quite a while. Then, they hooked up with a caravan of other survivors who they travelled with until they joined up with James.
Ben whistled loudly, waving an arm. "Let's load up!"
Eleazar and Emmett sat in the cab while Edward and I loaded up into the bed of our truck.
"No hitting all the ruts in the road, Emmett," Edward growled as he saw the grin on Emmett's face.
"Don't worry Eddie. I'll keep your tender butt safe and sound," Emmett laughed through the window.
Emmett started the truck and followed Ben and Carl out of the parking lot.
Apartment buildings, and industrial factories slowly disappeared, leaving us surrounded by woods. The air was chilly, but I pressed myself close to Edward so we could share each other's body heat. I could feel the crispness in the air that told me Fall was near. It filled me with a sense of dread because we weren't ready for winter.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when we hit a bump, followed by the muffled laugh of Emmett as we flew up and slammed back down. Edward hit the window behind Emmett's head, but Emmett only laughed again and hit another bump—on purpose this time.
Once we'd been on Camden South for a while, we turned right. I kept my eyes out on the road. A few miles after we left the camp, I noticed a few straggling dead that began following us as we drove by, but they weren't a threat. We needed to conserve whatever ammunition we had. Even though all the stragglers could merge into a herd, we would have to worry about that later.
I hoped it stayed quiet, but I had a feeling the closer we got to the main highway our luck was going to run out.
And I wasn't wrong. No sooner had we turned onto the 33 than we started to run into trouble with abandoned cars and pockets of dead, seeming to appear out of nowhere.
Our three vehicles pulled off to the side of the road and we began the labour intensive task of moving vehicles and syphoning fuel.
The sense of urgency was almost immediate. I felt naked and exposed outside of our vehicle and it was clear that the others felt the same. Therefore, everybody concentrated on the task at hand.
Being the smallest and therefore the weakest, Katie and I were set as lookouts. I used the scope of my rifle to look for any dead that might be creeping up on us unaware. If there were only a few of them, I waited until they got close enough to take them out using Edward's crossbow. It wasn't easy to use, but we couldn't risk the noise of shotgun blasts for only a few dead.
Katie focused on the task at hand with laser focus. She was a fairly non-de-script girl with short sandy brown hair and hazel eyes, but watching her now she was fierce. She didn't speak at all as she scanned the highway and surrounding area. When I saw her haul out a hunting bow and a quiver of arrows, I was doubtful that she'd be able to take down any dead with it. However, the thing was quite powerful and split the skulls of the dead just as effectively as the crossbow.
It took a long time to clear enough space for us to move our vehicles through the gridlock, but eventually we made it through and continued on the 33 with little trouble.
When the sun began to set, we searched for an area to set up camp for the night. Eventually, we settled on an overpass that we used as a barrier to protect our backs while the trucks surrounded us on the other three sides.
Arnold built a small fire that we could hide from the road and we all huddled around it, heating up cans of food over the coals.
It was at that time that Katie started asking me questions. I felt uncomfortable as she asked me personal question like where I was from, how long had Edward and I been together, where did we meet. As a rule, most survivors didn't ask questions about people's past, but Katie didn't seem to understand that.
"Katie, this isn't the time or place to get to know each other," Arnold admonished. "Save it for a time when we're not all scared shitless."
Katie stared incredulously at Arnold for a moment.
"Seriously?" she said with a wry grin on her face.
"What?" Arnold asked, looking at her seriously from behind his wire framed glasses.
"You're telling me you're scared right now."
"Absolutely," he said, taking a mouthful of stew from his can.
"I'm not scared," Quil said, not looking at anyone as he stared into the flames. His dark eyes were practically black as they glittered with the reflection of the flames. "I got my gun and I know what to do with it. The dead are stupid motherfuckers that are slow and only have one goal. It makes them easy pickings."
"Let me tell you something, Quil," Carl joined in the conversation. "Only the stupid or the crazy aren't scared. If you aren't scared, you're not paying attention."
"We're not safe," he said, looking around at all of us. "We're never going to be safe in this world. We're the prey, not the predators. The sooner you get that into your head the safer you and the rest of us will be."
Carl wasn't a big man, but his presence made him seem larger than he was. It was clear that when he spoke, people listened.
Even Quil fell silent at Carl's words, eating the rest of his meal in silence.
We decided to sleep in shifts. People on watch perched on top of the trucks that surrounded our makeshift camp to get a better view.
The rest of us settled down in order to get some sleep. Embry leaned back against one of the truck tires and pulled his baseball hat over his eyes to try to sleep. Eleazar leaned against another tire, draping himself in his coat.
Burrowing myself under Edward's arm, I looked up at him as he stared out into the darkness,
"Aren't you going to sleep?" I asked.
"No." When I looked at him with concern, he dropped a kiss to my forehead. "I know I won't be able to relax outside like this." I started to sit up straight, but he pulled me back against him. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. I'll keep you safe, Bella."
I looked tiredly around the camp as Edward urged me to use his leg as a pillow. Katie and Arnold were only shapes in the shadows of the fire. Emmett was sitting on the cab of our truck, looking out into the darkness with his rifle across his lap. In the bucket of the dump truck, Quil was looking through his scope which I realized with surprise must have night vision. His father had clearly prepared for being on the run. Jared who had barely said a word the whole trip, paced restlessly around the perimeter of our camp-site, never letting his guard down in case of attack.
I was seeing a new side of the Camden Head survivors out in the unknown like this. Emmett was right. You really got to know who people truly were when they were hanging over a volcano's edge.
The gray dawn came in stages, but we were already on the road. None of us slept soundly because of our surroundings, so we decided to get on the road the minute we didn't need our headlights.
We knew we were getting close to farming lands when the forests on either side of the highway opened up into fields that stretched lazily across the meandering hills, a beautiful patchwork of gold and green.
The highway seemed eerily calm as we saw the turn off for Carleton county up ahead. Our caravan of trucks slowed as we took the exit and entered the rural countryside.
The roads became rough with pot-holes and sharp turns as we passed through the small community that was once Carleton.
The ghost town was out of place in the rolling hills of yellowing farmland that surrounded it.
It seemed almost like a movie set for a horror movie. The streets that once thronged with life stood empty. Gone were the busy shops and the locals going about their business. Gone were the children who played amongst the crowds with their games and laughter.
Houses were falling down and only the occasional window still possessed its panes of glass.
We didn't pull over to search the stores. There may be time for that later, but we continued through the town, looking for any signs of produce farms.
Finally, we saw a large sign on the side of the road.
On the sign was a cartoon farmer and text that said "KIRKMAN FARM: WHY PAY MORE? BUY STRAIGHT FROM THE OWNER!"
Our caravan slowed to a crawl as we searched for the entrance for Kirkman Farm, which we found only a short distance past the sign.
Taking a dirt road, we bounced our way up an incline until we came to a gated fence.
Katie and I took our places on the cabs of our trucks, while the rest of our crew grabbed baskets and buckets out of the backs of the pick-up trucks.
Everyone was in good spirits as we saw row upon row of corn, ripe for the picking. People joked with each other as they hoisted the large baskets into their arms.
Even with Katie and I on the look-out, we didn't notice the people dressed in camouflage take up up position on the other side of the gate until a voice broke through the revelry.
"Not one more step or I'll shoot!"
Everyone froze in place as we followed the direction of the man's voice to see a man stand up from where he'd been crouched behind the fence. He had a shot gun aimed at us and looked like he was ready to shoot if we moved the slightest bit.
"Oh my God," I gasped as the man clicked the safety off his gun.
"Before you get any ideas, I'm not alone here and we're willing to kill for what's ours."
I heard the sound of many guns being cocked.
Quickly, I looked around at our group and realized that the sounds weren't coming from us.
"We're not interested in killing y'all, so just get back in your trucks and get the hell out of here!" the man holding the gun growled.
"We don't mean any harm. Our community is looking for food and we saw the sign. We didn't know anyone was here," Ben said carefully.
"Well, now you know. Get the hell out of here!"
"Okay, okay, we're leaving sir," Ben said as he walked the group back slowly, all eyes fixed on the man with the gun and on the barrels protruding through the fences. When he saw us retreating, the man lowered the barrel but kept his gaze fixed on us.
I nearly stopped breathing when Emmett spoke up.
"Sir, we're not here to take what's yours, so we'll leave. But we don't know the area. Are there any farms nearby that we could go to? We're part of a large group that won't survive the winter without more food," he said, calmly.
At first, I didn't think the man was going to respond. He raised his gun again and this time he pointed it at Emmett.
They stared at each other for a moment before the man broke the silence.
"Try the Sleeman's farm about five miles down this road. But I'm telling you, if I even get a whiff of your group I won't hesitate to blow your brains out," he said. "Now, get out of here!"
"Thank you sir," Ben said, sincerely. "I promise. You'll never see us again."
And with that, we climbed back into our vehicles and left.
Edward pulled me to him with a sigh of relief.
"That was close," I said, wrapping my arms around his neck.
"But it tells us something…" he said with a contemplative look.
"What's that?" I asked.
"That there are still good people in the world," he said.
I stayed silent, thinking about what he said. The man and his group could have killed all of us before we were even aware that they were there, but they didn't. Even more, they didn't have to tell us where we could find another farm, but they did. It was something to think about.
To our great relief, the Sleeman farm had an good size cornfield and closer to the house there were still some tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and a large number of zucchini.
I nearly squealed with delight when behind the house I found a small apple orchard teeming with green and red fruit.
Climbing the trees to pick the apples, I had a wave of sadness thinking about Charlie. Every year, Charlie and I would take a trip to an apple orchard to pick together. Charlie always grumbled about how I was going to fall out of a tree and break something and I would periodically drop one on his head. Then, for the next two weeks, we'd eat apples until we both developed canker sores, but we still did it year after year.
Suddenly, shots rang out from the left side of the house. I immediately dropped down from the tree and grabbed my gun.
"It's okay!" Quil called from the back. "It was only four of them."
Carl, Ben, and Edward hurried towards me before I had the chance to let them know it was nothing.
"Quil killed three zombies on the other side of the house," I said to them. "Nothing to worry about."
"Embry and Jared say that it's all clear on our end. It's a miracle that there aren't any dead here. Someone must be looking down on us. We just might make it through the winter," Ben said, looking younger with the stress leaving his face.
"Let's get back to it. I want to get most of harvesting done today, so that we can get back on the road tomorrow," Ben said, turning back to the field.
Everyone worked tirelessly, only stopping in late afternoon to eat. There were groans and moans of contentment around the fire as we devoured the fire roasted corn cobs that literally burst with flavour.
Then, we continued working until dusk.
After dispatching the dead that had been trapped in the farmhouse, we stayed the night indoors.
As we all settled down in the family room, I sighed in happily. The farmhouse reminded Edward and me of our first home with Rosalie and Emmett. We had many good memories of that house.
With our stomachs pleasantly full, no one wanted to sleep right away.
A feeling of comradery fell over us as we made a small fire in the fireplace and roasted some potatoes and corn.
"Friends and neighbours. Let's have a moment of rejoicing," Emmett said, dramatically as he walked into the room. "I've found marshmallows."
"I was right," Arnold said, seriously. "You're a twelve-year old in a grown man's body."
Arnold had a dry sense of humour that had begun to come out during the day as everyone worked side by side.
The room broke out in chuckles and snickers.
"Just for that Mr. Clapp. I'm not sharing any of these little pieces of heaven with you," Emmett said with a smirk.
"You better, boy or I'll get you in your sleep," Arnold growled, but his eyes twinkled with humour.
Jared left the room and came back with wire coat hangers that he straightened out for roasting sticks.
"I haven't had roasted marshmallows since I visited my parents' farm and that was… well I guess that was over twenty years ago," Carl said, as he squeezed the browned marshmallow off the wire.
"You went twenty years without having a roasted marshmallow? Well, that's a goddam tragedy," Embry said with a chuckle as he jammed two down on his stick.
"What I wouldn't give for a little bit of the good ole' Jack Daniels right about now," Carl said with a sigh.
I shuddered at the thought of the vile liquid.
Emmett looked at me and laughed.
"What's so funny?" Katie asked.
"Edward and Bella's introduction to whiskey was a bit of a harsh one," Emmett chuckled.
Ben laughed ruefully at that. "Mine was pretty bad myself…"
Edward leaned in and whispered in my ear, "Well, it wasn't all bad… A little naked fun was well-worth the hangover."
I shivered at his words, remembering how we'd taken our relationship to the next level that night.
A low whistle came from the other side of the room, causing us to realize that Edward's whispered words didn't go unnoticed.
Embry, the whistler, looked at us with a friendly grin that made us both flush red.
"What? What did he say?" Quil asked, looking around the room in confusion.
"Never mind, young'un. It would be too much for your innocent ears," Carl said with a laugh.
The laughter at our expense wasn't mocking. It was just some friendly teasing.
Eventually, conversation dwindled and then disappeared entirely as sleep took over.
The next day, we picked as much produce as we could and then prepared to leave. There were some crops left over, but we just didn't have room. We discussed making a trip later, once we figured out how to preserve everything we had.
Finally, we loaded into the trucks and started to make our way home. With our vehicles full of food, Katie decided to drive with us.
Nestled amongst baskets of corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and apples, Edward, Katie, and I stared out at the open country. Besides the hum of the engines, things were quiet for a while.
We'd been travelling for about half a day when I heard something in the distance.
I listened harder and tried to figure out what the sound was. It was a high-pitched sound that rose and fell on the wind.
"Stop! Stop!" Katie suddenly yelled, pounding on the hood of the truck. "EMMETT PULL OVER!"
"Katie, wh-" Edward began, but I slapped a hand over his mouth.
"Can you hear it?" I gasped.
With the engine of the truck turned off, I saw Edward's eyes widen as he heard it too.
It sounded like children crying and screaming.
"Fuck!" Edward growled, throwing himself over the edge of the truck, only to collide with Emmett who was getting out of the cab.
"What the hell?" Emmett snapped, but then pulled up short when he heard it too.
"Oh my god… where's that coming from?" he said, scanning the area.
By that point, the other vehicles had pulled over too and the others were searching for the source of the sounds.
"I think it's coming from over that ridge," Embry barked, pointing up the incline on our right.
"Quil! Katie! Stay with the vehicles!" Ben snapped, before breaking into a run.
"Go! Go!" Eleazar shouted at us. "I'll stay with the vehicles."
We stumbled and crawled our way to the top of the hill, too panicked by the sound of children screaming to be careful of our steps.
As I came over the crest of the hill, my mind tried to catalogue everything at once.
A herd of dead crowded against a fence, pushing on each other, causing the fence to bow and heave with their weight. There were so many that we couldn't see what was behind them. All we could see were the corrugated metal roofs of barns over their heads.
Without any discussion, we began shooting at the dead who barely noticed even though they were dropping like flies. They were too focused on the sound of crying on the other side of the fence.
The crying on the other side of the fence seemed to get louder as the blasts of our guns took down more and more. However, with a loud crack, the fence gave way and some of the dead started to worm their way into the enclosed area.
The sight pushed out all rational thought from everyone's heads, the instinct to protect the young taking over. Jared rushed forward with his axe in hand, having expended all his bullets.
Not only did Jared cut the dead down with his axe, but without concern for himself he shoved and yanked the dead out of the way. It seemed like he was making progress through the throng of dead, but then suddenly he fell over something embedded in the grass and he let out a scream as the dead swarmed over him. However, when rotted teeth bit into his jugular his scream turned into a gurgle.
Carl let out a wail of despair and lunged for the dead, not seeming to know that it was already too late for Jared.
"CARL LOOK OUT!"
My scream rose above the moaning of the dead that loomed behind Carl. Carl spun towards them and struck out against the dead, but there were too many now, coming at him from all directions to feed.
Clawing at his back, they overpowered him. He went down hard, slamming into the grass as the dead swarmed over him. Through the twisting and weaving bodies, I saw the first bite that broke through his army jacket his army jacket, taking a chunk of flesh away with it.
A blinding rage filled me and somehow through it all I came up with a plan. I grabbed my rifle and rushed to the truck. With every ounce of strength I had, I slammed it against the grill of the truck, making a loud clanging sound.
The clang rang out and the dead jerked with a start and turned their faces towards the noise.
"COME AND GET ME!" I shrieked and struck the truck again.
The metallic clang got the attention of more of the dead and the majority began lumbering towards me.
With their attention focused on me, the others destroyed the dead attacking Carl and then went about killing the rest that were following me.
Once it was over, there was a stunned silence, followed by a cry of despair from Arnold as he lurched towards the writhing form of Carl.
Ben fell to his knees next to Carl.
"I'm sorry, Carl. I'm so sorry," Ben gasped and whimpered even though none of it had been his fault. Carl patted Ben's shoulder even though he was writhing in pain.
Edward came over to me and gently pulled the destroyed rifle out of my shaking hands. The minute I felt his hands on mine, my legs gave out and I collapsed to the ground.
Edward slumped next to me and pulled me onto his lap. We both cried silent tears as we stared at the devastation in front of us.
"IT'S FUCKING SHEEP!" Embry roared, from where he stood next to the fence. "NOT FUCKING CHILDREN. JUST FUCKING FARM ANIMALS!"
"Oh my god," Emmett said, broken-heartedly as he looked inside the fence. "He's right. It's sheep and goats."
I listened to the crying and started to recognize how the bleating of the animals did sound very similar to children. A sob slipped out of me and I buried my face in Edward's chest.
With a cry of rage, Embry started using the rest of his bullets to destroy the animals that had caused the death of his friends.
"No…" Carl gurgled, blood frothing to his mouth. "Don't… Embry don't…"
Emmett grabbed Embry's arm after he'd only been able to shoot a few of the sheep.
"Take them… You need…" Carl gasped. "Milk… cheese… wool… You need…"
Understanding filled Ben's eyes. "You're right, Carl. You're right," he said, wiping his eyes and standing up. "We need to take the fucking animals with us. They're another source of food."
Quil, Eleazar, and Katie suddenly came flying up over the hill. Taking in the tragedy, Quil rushed to Carl's side and dropped down next to him.
"Carl," he cried, broken-heartedly.
"It's… okay…. Quil… don't…" but before he was able to finish his sentence, Carl's eyes glazed over and he was gone.
For a moment, none of us moved. Our grief overwhelmed us. Even though I hadn't known Jared and Carl for long, I'd liked them. They were good people who were doing their best to protect those around them.
Finally, Ben stood up and took a deep breath.
"We can't stay here. We need to figure out a way to take those beasts with us. And I have to… I have to…" he said, but then his words got stuck in his throat as he took out his gun and looked at the bodies of Jared and Carl.
Edward unwound my arms from around him and stood up.
Walking to Ben's side, he carefully took the gun out of his hand.
"Let me, Ben. You don't have to be the one to give them mercy," he said, gently.
Ben looked at him with an agonized look for a moment, but then he steeled himself.
"No. They were my people. I need to do this," he said, firmly.
"Are you sure?" Edward asked as Ben took back his gun.
"Yes," Ben said, calmly but he didn't look at anyone as he said it.
"Help the others do something with the animals. I don't want anyone else to see this," he said, nodding towards the rest of us.
"Okay," Edward said, patting Ben on the shoulder and then making his way over to us.
"Quil, Katie, go keep an eye on the trucks," Ben ordered as he crouched down next to Carl.
I turned away quickly, not wanting to see what Ben had to do.
Edward ushered us through the fence and then we just stopped as we stared at the milling group of seven or eight sheep and goats, some nothing more than babies.
"What are we going to do with them?" Embry snarled. "We can't just load them into the back of the truck. They'll just jump out."
"Let's see if there's any other vehicle in the barns," Emmett said.
As a group we began to move towards the barns, but then jerked to a stop as the blast of a gun erupted behind us. Then, another which made us all flinch.
"Come on," Arnold said, gruffly.
Inside the barn, we found a dead farmer who didn't look like he'd been a zombie for long because he'd barely begun to rot. It answered a question that I had for how the animals had survived this long.
"We'll put them in the back of the van," Arnold said. "Eleazar, Emmett, check the house and see if there is anyone alive in there."
Embry climbed into the front seat of the van and backed it out of the barn just as Ben entered the fenced in area.
Ben's face was grim as he took in the animals, but his eyes showed a firm resolve.
Each of us grabbed one of the animals who bleated and cried out at being manhandled and pushed them into the back of the van.
It wasn't going to be comfortable for them, but it was all we could do.
Once they were secured inside the van, Embry climbed out.
"Maybe no one else has thought of this, but once we get them back home where are we going to keep them? An apartment building isn't going to cut it for farm animals," he said.
"We'll keep them," Edward said after a moment. "We have the space."
At that moment, Emmett and Eleazar joined us.
After a wordless conversation between the four of us, Edward looked back at the rest of the group.
"We have space for all of you."
It took two weeks to get the Camden Head survivors settled in Elmherst. When we'd first moved into Elmherst, we'd taken the time to clear the houses of dead. However, most of them were in shambles. It took a lot of manpower to even get them liveable which was made more difficult for the fact that a large number of us had to work on food preservation. We only had a short window of opportunity to preserve the food before it began to rot, so it had to be the main focus for most of our new community. A few of the houses had generators, so Mrs. Cope had those houses use their ovens to dry corn for corn meal even though it was using up our precious fuel. We also continued to use the sun to dry slices of tomatoes and now apples too. The rest of it, we set about canning. While still at Camden Head, Mrs. Cope had asked Ben to send people out looking for mason jars, as many as they could find. It seemed like a weird request until he realized that almost everything that we'd picked from the Sleeman farm could be canned and preserved. For over a week, there were fires everywhere that contained cauldron's full of boiling water and mason jars full of precious food.
Mrs. Cope was amazing during this time. For a woman in her seventies, she shouted out orders like a drill sergeant and not a single person resisted. Carl and Jared's absence was felt in every aspect of our two groups melding together, but life had to go on.
However, throughout all the stress and mayhem, there were moments of happiness.
Seeing Chris run down the street with Angela's twin brothers was amazing. We'd never seen Chris just be a kid. He was even talking more clearly now that he was around other children.
Alice spent a lot of time with Siobhan Calwell who had a two year-old and a newborn with her husband Liam. Their newborn Maggie was almost as cute as Clara. However, Edward said we were biased because in our eyes, no baby could be as cute as Clara.
We got to know Siobhan a little better than most of the Camden Head people because she was often at our house with Alice.
Even though Jasper and Alice's house remained empty while she was with us, we all agreed not to settle anyone else there, at least for a while. Alice more than the rest of us still held out hope that Jasper would come back and she knew that if he did he wouldn't want to be surrounded by strangers.
Ben and Angela moved into the house next to ours. Angela spent a great deal of time with Rose and me, helping with the canning and the harvesting of our own garden as well as the bushels of corn that needed to be dried and canned. Angela was a gentle and kind person who never had a negative word to say about anyone. It was easy to see why Ben fell in love with her. I knew that Ben had that same kindness in him, but he often had to hide it in order to keep his large group in line. Ben, Emmett, Edward, and Embry had nearly become inseparable, setting up patrols of the fences, search parties for more fuel, and the ever constant search for generators and medicine.
Much to my relief, Victoria, Tanya, and Leah moved into a house on the other side of the community and at least for the time being we didn't see much of them. However, we did see Seth quite a bit with the other teenagers who wandered around the community when they weren't working. He was friendly, but distant. It would take time for him to get comfortable with us and we understood that.
Things began to settle down after a couple of weeks. The undercurrent of tension that had run continuously through the Camden Head survivors began to ease as they got used to the fact that they had space to live and walls to keep them safe.
After an evening of cards with Ben and Angela, we shut down the house for the night and went to sleep.
In the middle of the night, I awoke to the feeling that someone was in the room with us.
I didn't move, but I let my eyes trail around the room, searching for the presence that I felt.
It wasn't long before I saw the silhouette of a person standing just outside the light of the window.
Lunging for my night-stand, I grabbed my flash-light and clicked it on, causing Edward to startle awake.
"What?" he mumbled.
"Who are you?" I said, shining the light at the person in the shadows.
The beam of my flash-light, trailed up dirty and blood-stained ragged clothes before focusing on a face, hidden under a tangle of blonde hair.
"Oh my god," I choked out. "Jasper…"
"Jasper? JASPER?" Edward gasped, bolting up in bed.
However, at his reaction, Jasper flinched and slipped back into the shadows.
"Jasper," I said, more calmly. "Jasper, you're alive... Thank god…"
"Where is she?" Jasper rasped from the darkness.
I shone the flash-light at him again, but moved it away quickly when I saw him squint at the blaring light.
"She's not home," he said, hoarsely.
"She's downstairs," Edward said, climbing out of bed. "Jasper, my friend, you have a dau-" but before he could complete his sentence, Jasper rushed out of the room and down the stairs.
Before we even made it down the stairs, we heard Alice cry out in alarm followed by Clara crying.
Hurrying into Alice's room, we saw a scene of chaos. Instead of a happy reunion, Alice was struggling against Jasper who was trying to drag her out of the room with him.
"No! Jasper! Let go of me! You're hurting me!" Alice whimpered.
Jasper snarled and gripped Alice's arm tighter, pulling her towards the door of her room.
Edward jumped into the mix and tried to restrain Jasper while I pried his fingers off of Alice's wrist.
By that time, Emmett and Rosalie were in the room.
Emmett quickly jumped to Edward's aid as he struggled with controlling Jasper.
Rose reached into Clara's crib and picked up the wailing baby, holding her close to her chest.
At the sight of the little bundle in Rose's arms, all the fight drained from Jasper and he collapsed to the ground.
Clutching her aching wrist to her chest, Alice left my side and fell to her knees next to Jasper.
I would have been afraid of him after the violent struggle she'd been in with him, but Alice wasn't. Instead, she cupped his face and looked him in the eyes.
"Jasper… Jasper…" she cried and then threw her arms around his neck even though he was still being held tightly by Emmett and Edward.
"I knew you'd come back to me. I knew you would never abandon us," she whimpered, kissing the side of his neck and then his cheek.
Jasper barely registered her loving touches as he stared at Clara in Rose's arms. I couldn't read his expression, he looked almost horrified.
"Is that… Is that…?" he tried to get out, but just couldn't seem to find the words.
"That's our baby, Jazz," Alice said, letting go of his neck and looking into his eyes with joy. "It's your daughter. Our baby girl, Clara."
With a final caress of his cheek, she climbed to her feet and went to Rose to get their daughter.
Cooing to her baby, Alice knelt down next to Jasper. Pulling back the blanket, Clara's blonde curls and then her blue eyes that looked so much like her father's could be seen.
With an inarticulate cry, Jasper flinched away from her, nearly cowering in Emmett and Edward's arms.
"No, no, no, no…" he whimpered, turning his head away from a shocked Alice. "I can't. No. No."
"Jasper, what's wrong? She's our baby. Our beautiful baby," Alice said, tears filling her eyes.
"No... I'm not… I can't… It's wrong…" he muttered, looking anywhere but at Alice.
"Jasper, calm down. Just calm down," Emmett said, soothingly.
"It's okay, Jasper. Everything's okay," Edward said.
Edward's words seemed to strike something in Jasper because suddenly he stopped struggling and whipped his head towards Edward, glaring into his eyes.
"No. It's not okay. They're coming," he snarled.