Shore Haven (Short Story 4): Welcome To Edge Burrow Read online

  “Well, you were right,” I said.

  “Why have you been stalking us?” she asked.

  “Mostly, I was trying to get a sense of who you are. I haven’t seen many survivors as of late. I haven’t seen any groups wandering around as if they don’t have a care in the world,” I answered. “Those that I’ve glimpsed tend to hide from me when I come close.”

  “Ever think that’s because of the shotgun,” a man said, nodding to my weapon.

  “Well, if seeing this scares them, then they’ve been living under a rock this last month or so. I’d find it odd to meet someone who wasn’t carrying a weapon of some kind in our new world.”

  “I guess that means you won’t be putting the weapon away,” he said.

  “Not anytime soon. But if the sight of it frightens you, you’re welcome to look away.”

  A few of his buddies snickered. He glared at me. I hadn’t meant to embarrass the man, but he had another thing coming if he thought I was putting my gun away. I would shoot and ask questions later.

  “All right. Settle down. For the most part, this area is zombie-free, but if you feel safer keeping your shotgun at the ready, then, by all means, do so,” the woman said. “We’ve had a few stragglers, so I don’t see the harm.

  I nodded at her in thanks.

  “How are there no zombies here? I haven’t been anywhere that there wasn’t any,” I asked.

  “We’re not sure,” the stocky woman said, though I thought I saw a few of the others look at each other knowingly. “I guess they just moved on after they killed all of the people. You aren’t from Larkin, then?”

  “No. I’m from the east coast. I’ve been on foot for a while now,” I answered. “I take it you all aren’t from here either?”

  “No. We’re from Edge Burrow. I mean, most of us who live there are from different places, but we’ve found sanctuary in Edge Burrow.”

  “Edge Burrow? Isn’t that right outside of Liberty Island? Why not find safety on the island? I keep seeing signs for a place called Shore Haven. It looks huge, and like it could keep us safe from the zombies.”

  “For one,” she started, “Edge Burrow is where Dominic, our leader, is from and where he was already rebuilding when either we found him or his people found us. And when the outbreak started, Liberty raised its bridges so that no one could get on or off the island.”

  Well, fuck. There went that idea. I also noticed that the woman didn’t call the man King. I wondered why that was.

  I sat down on the sidewalk with a sigh and looked at the group.

  3.

  “Did you have family on the island?” a petite, Hispanic woman, who was in her mid-forties, asked, coming to sit down next to me.

  “No. Liberty was my next destination. That’s all. I’ll have to figure out a new plan, I guess,” I said, glancing around at the assembled group.

  Shore Haven was the last place on my list to check for possible locations of my son—I couldn’t think of a single place any further west that he and Carl would have gone—but I wasn’t giving them that much information about me.

  “You can come to Edge Burrow with us,” the Hispanic woman said.

  “Nan,” the stocky woman chided.

  “What, Charlotte? Dom… Um… King Dominic wants us to bring back survivors, doesn’t he?” Nan asked, looking up at the other woman with a confused expression on her face.

  I barely paid attention to either woman. I noted their odd behavior, especially the way the group stiffened. However, my thoughts kept returning to my son and any other places he could be. My brain kept whispering that he was gone and to let him be, but my heart wouldn’t let go.

  “I’m sure he’d want us to bring her back, but I think we should ask him first,” Charlotte said. “And she hasn’t even said she wants to come.”

  “You do, don’t you?” Nan asked me.

  “I… I don’t know. I need to think about things,” I told them all.

  “While you think, let’s eat,” one of the men said, taking what looked like Spam burgers off the grill.

  We ate in silence. No one asked me any further questions, though Nan did try to talk to me some. My “lost in contemplation expression,” and the stony looks from her traveling companions mostly kept her quiet.

  “There’s no way onto the island?” I asked after we’d finished eating.

  “Not that we’ve found,” Charlotte said.

  Some of the others had already discreetly escorted Nan back inside the store, so I couldn’t turn to her for what I had a sneaking suspicion was a more truthful answer.

  “Will you be here in the morning?” I asked, pointing back at the store.

  “For a little bit or nearby,” she said, nodding further down the street to the businesses they hadn’t scavenged yet. “We’ll need to head back to Edge Burrow before noon. The truck’s nearly full. Dominic doesn’t like for a crew to be gone any more than a day or so. For the most part, we have enough supplies to last us a while. These items are just a precaution. By next year, we’ll be eating the food we grew and raising cattle.”

  “Sounds like you guys have your shit together. You’re bouncing back a lot quicker than any other survivors I’ve met. Hell, even I haven’t thought past next week.”

  “Dominic started planning the day he heard about the sickness spreading across Liberty, or so they say. I haven’t been with him that long. He convinced some of his neighbors and family to hide in their bunkers. That saved their lives. I think we’ll find that it might have saved a good number of people.”

  “Not as many as you would assume?”

  “You don’t think so?”

  “Nope. I don’t know many who kept theirs in useable condition. I know I didn’t. And, in many places, instead of telling people to use their bunkers, the government moved them to quarantine zones. Those places weren’t any safer than anywhere else. If this had happened fifty maybe even seventy-five years after the quakes, then more people might have survived, but we grew soft. We grew careless. We relaxed, thinking nothing worse could happen to us. Not only that, but those who did seek shelter in the bunkers had no way of preparing for what they found when they came out.”

  “Damn, you’re a buzz kill.”

  “Sorry. I’ve just seen a lot since the day the outbreak hit my hometown, and none of it suggests that many people have survived.”

  “Edge Burrow will be a shock to you then. If you come, that is.”

  “If this Dominic guy lets me join you guys, you mean.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that. It’s not that I don’t think Dominic won’t. I just don’t like people being presumptuous. Edge Burrow is Dominic’s home, and he safeguarded it. He’s welcoming. However, I prefer to let him know we’ve found survivors so he can invite them if he wants.”

  Her explanation made sense. Still, I felt as if something were off about her, the group, and the place.

  “Will you be staying with us tonight?” Charlotte asked.

  “No. No offense, but I don’t know you guys, and whereas, so far you haven’t tried to kill me or hurt me in any way, I don’t feel comfortable sleeping near you.”

  “No offense taken. I completely understand.”

  She and I talked on and off a bit more. One of the others would occasionally come out to sit with us for a while, but Nan wasn’t one of them. Mostly, everyone wanted to know about the world. They’d all lived in and around Edge Burrow and hadn’t seen the spread of the virus the way I had. I told them all I could, even the stuff I knew they wouldn’t want to hear.

  Eventually, I said goodnight and left the group. I was sure someone had followed me and perhaps even guarded me for the night. As long as that someone left me alone, I was okay with that.

  I found an empty house a few blocks up that smelled dusty but not like rotting flesh. I barricaded myself in an upstairs bedroom and slept the best I could.

  The next morning, I cleaned up, ate a protein bar, and snuck out of the house. I didn’t see any sign
s of a guard, and everyone was at the furniture store when I arrived, but I was still sure one of them had watched me in the night.

  “I spoke with Dominic,” Charlotte said, holding up a hand-held radio. “He’s okay with you coming back with us if you want.”

  “I still haven’t decided yet. You haven’t told me much about the town,” I replied, as I watched the group prepare their morning meal.

  “There isn’t much to tell. It used to be a coastal town, and there are still docks that lower freight to the waterline and onto barges, but it was mostly a railroad city these last twenty years. Dominic used those large shipping containers to barricade the city on the southern side to keep those creatures from Larkin and other places from coming north. Regular fencing runs to the north and east. We have guards who patrol the perimeter. Everyone works to clean up the town and go on scavenging runs. We’re still working out most things, but that’s pretty much it.”

  “Can I come and go as I please?”

  “I guess so. I mean, usually, we have a lot of work to do, but I guess if you want to wander the countryside killing zombies, or whatever, I don’t see him having a problem with it.”

  “What if I decided I don’t want to stay?”

  “Then, you don’t. We aren’t making you go with us, and we won’t be holding you hostage once you get there. Look, help us finish loading the truck while you think about it. We’ll even get you a vehicle so that you can follow us to Edge Burrow. That way, if you decide that you don’t want to join us after all, you can keep going or turn around.”

  “I can agree to that,” I said, as someone handed me a plate of food.

  4

  I wasn’t surprised when Charlotte announced that she was going to ride with me to Edge Burrow in the four-door sedan we managed to jump-start for my drive north. Not a single person in the group had touched me the wrong way, though I’d caught two of the men eyeballing me. Yet, I knew they weren’t going to let me enter the town alone, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right with them or where we were going.

  Jeremiah had been a good kid. Yeah, I’d caught him sneaking out, cussing, and doing other things he shouldn’t, but nothing abnormal for a teenager. The things he’d done, and his father’s cheating on me, had taught me to hone my senses a good bit and trust that voice in the back of my head that said something wasn’t right. And that voice was all but screaming. I kept telling it that I was paying attention, but it was scared and wouldn’t shut up.

  Charlotte talked about nothing the entire drive. I wasn’t sure if she was nervous, couldn’t stand silence, or was attempting to distract me from the fact that we bypassed Edge Burrow all together when the time came. Probably a bit of all three. Her chattering didn’t cause me to miss the exits saying Edge Burrow and Liberty Island next left or the fact that we moved west for a bit before looping north.

  I hoped that Dominic had simply had the south side of the town blocked, and the only way in was from the north, but my gut told me that was wrong. I didn’t see any barricades. Nor did I see a community growing out of the ashes, but again, I don’t think we got close enough to town to see anything, and I knew they’d done that on purpose.

  The warehouse we eventually pulled in front of sat in a little town called Holly located a bit north of Edge Burrow. As we drove through the one-stoplight town, we didn’t encounter a single person or zombie. Holly didn’t look as if it had just gone through an apocalypse. It looked like the end of the world had come and gone years ago. The little place was one that hadn’t bloomed in the years following the quakes. From what I could see, people had lived in Holly before the zombies, but they hadn’t had the money to invest in its upkeep.

  I didn’t say a word as we rode. Charlotte’s look said that she was prepared for me to bombard her with questions and demands to know what was happening. That told me I was walking into a trap. I just couldn’t figure out what kind, and I couldn’t make myself run from the group on the off chance my mind was simply making things up because of the type of world in which we now lived.

  If one of the guys had rushed me the second I’d gotten out of the car or if Charlotte had demanded I hand over my weapons, I might have fought and attempted an escape, but everyone acted normal as we exited.

  A man in the group, named Colt, walked to a set of roll-up doors, squatted, unlocked the padlock, and pushed the doors up. The room beyond wasn’t full of food and supplies as I’d half expected it to be, but there were crates of stuff lining a back wall.

  “Charlotte, you and our new guest can unload what you need, and we’ll take the rest on into Edge Burrow,” Colt said.

  “We aren’t unloading all this shit ourselves. Get off your asses and help,” Charlotte said, giving the man a glare that could set a person’s soul on fire.

  “Woman, you don’t order me…”

  Charlotte had a knife to his throat and one at his groin before he could finish his sentence. “I’m not one of your whores. I won’t cower before you and do as you say. Now, help us move this freight into the storeroom, or I’ll nick both arteries at once and watch you bleed out right here on the docks.”

  I couldn’t do anything but watch her, and I wasn’t the only one. As far as I could tell, Dominic didn’t have weak men or women in his group, so one of the others could’ve come to the man’s aid, but all of them stood to the side and watched. A few of them, both men and women, looked on with a crazed gleam in their eye that made me want to wet myself. They seemed almost to be getting off on the violence playing out before them. I needed to remember those people and to stay away from them. The others were doing a decent job of hiding their fear.

  “Fuck you,” Colt said in a tone that indicated that despite his words, he was bowing to her wishes.

  We finished unloading the truck within fifteen minutes with the group working together and considering how little was going inside that particular warehouse. Everyone but Charlotte and I returned in the rig and other vehicles, including our sedan. I wanted to protest, but a part of me didn’t want to get any closer to Edge Burrow than I already was.

  I should’ve asked questions. Instead, I stood beside Charlotte and watched the others drive away.

  “Come with me,” Charlotte said, before stepping off the docks and heading around the warehouse. I shouldered my pack and made sure my handgun was at the ready before following her.

  A block or so from the warehouse was a school. Sitting in a chair in front of the main doors was a brunette, about five-foot-six, and average build. A rifle leaned against the door next to the woman.

  “You found another one, I heard,” the brunette said as we approached.

  “She found us. Tera, this is Jasmine. Jasmine, meet Tera,” Charlotte said.

  Jasmine nodded at me, and when we were standing beside her, she looked me up and down.

  “In with the others or in solitary?” Jasmine asked.

  “The others. I’m sure Tera’s clean.”

  “Excuse me,” I asked, bracing myself for a fight.

  “We bring all the women we find here for a bit,” Charlotte said, opening the doors and motioning for me to go inside. “The men go to a different holding facility. Most of us have been through some traumatic shit. Some need medical treatment. Others just need downtime before joining the community. Here you’ll rest, recover, get to know some of the other women before we take you into Edge Burrow. Once there, you’ll have to earn your keep. You’ll learn to fight, to shoot, to clean, cook, garden, and a shit load of other stuff. Most you probably don’t need training on, and you might not need this downtime, but everyone gets it.”

  “How long will I be here?”

  “Most people get at least two weeks—one week to recover from any injuries and replenish their bodies with the proper nutrition and one week to rest. Some people need more. No one gets more than a month unless they are seriously injured.”

  She sounded convincing, and it seemed like a good plan, but as usual, something in
the back of my head said there had to be more going on there. That something didn’t have to be sinister or anything more than what Charlotte was telling me.

  “I could use some rest,” I said as I looked around the building. “Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”

  “I didn’t think you’d take the downtime if you knew. Sorry,” Charlotte said.

  Her reason sounded plausible, but I didn’t necessarily buy it. Still, I didn’t argue. I wasn’t lying. I could use the rest.

  The cafeteria was our first stop. The place was clean, and all the seating and tables looked new or redone, as were the bars. The walls looked newly painted, as well. I’d bet a lot of the rooms were the same. The people from Edge Burrow wanted the women coming there to know they were getting a fresh start even if the town around them looked deserted.

  A group of five women milled about the room. A few were eating, some were talking to each other, and others were reading. They all looked our way when we entered. Charlotte told me that these five, two in the hospital wing, and myself were all the newbies. She, Jasmine, and three women I hadn’t met yet; Georgia, Lindsey, and Kathy were the facilities guards and medical personnel.

  “Hello, ladies,” Charlotte said. “We have a new member. Her name is Tera. Please make her feel welcome.”

  A few of the women smiled at me, but most just stared. They had that haunted look to them that told me they’d seen too much as of late and were on the edge of breaking. I could completely understand.

  5.

  For the first few days, life inside the school was relaxing and quiet. After that, I grew bored. There was plenty to do inside the building: rooms to paint, furniture to fix, something to clean, but I wanted to be out looking for my son and killing zombies. I wanted to be outside…period. I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t leave the confines of the school.

  My antsiness showed, and eventually, I started to get on people’s nerves. I couldn’t help it. The twins and my son had kept me going before the outbreak, and since—well, I hadn’t stayed in one place for more than a night. I enjoyed eating hot meals and being able to shower, but I longed to roam. If I knew for sure my son was dead and that those creatures were dying out, as some had rumored, I could probably content myself with livening up the school for those who came after me, but knowing I could be of more use out in the world had me pacing the halls and stalking all the exits.