Zomblog 05: Snoe's War Read online

  Mary was right on my heels and moved past me in a hurry. She brought her hand down hard and smashed the (completely) naked man in the temple, knocking him out cold.

  Meanwhile, Dominique had scooted away on her butt to get her back against a wall. She held the blade out in front of her, occasionally thrusting it my way despite the fact that I was a good five feet out of range. The she realized who had just barged in and disturbed her “entertainment.”

  “Well, well…look who decided to show up,” Dominique sneered.

  I looked at her differently. Maybe it was because I was the one standing with her in the sights of my crossbow, or maybe it was the fact that she was obviously at a huge disadvantage, and thus, everything about her that had scared me before just did not exist. Whatever the reason, all I saw was a scared, scarred, and bitter woman.

  “Why did you do it? Why did you kill my mother?” I saw no reason to draw things out.

  “Why does there have to be a reason?” Dominique said with a sneer that twisted her scar up and made her just a bit uglier.

  I realized right then something that I don’t believe I had ever actually known. I grew up around Jenifer my entire life. While she certainly had much more damage than Dominique (at least outwardly), I never saw her as ugly. In fact, there were many that said she was beautiful. But that obviously came from someplace within. It had nothing to actually do with her appearance.

  By that very same token, Dominique was a truly ugly person. Looking in to her eyes, all I saw was anger and hatred. I do not believe that she even realized or understood where it came from. It was simply so deeply ingrained into who and what she was that nothing would or could save her.

  “You can’t tell me that you killed her just because,” I argued. At that point, I was still making the connection as to what she was. I did not realize that there was every possibility that “because” was her sole reason.

  “I warned you about leaving,” Dominique hissed.

  “And why was it so important for you to have me?”

  “You are a poster girl, Snoe. Like it or not, people see you as some sacred cow that should be treated as something special. With you under my thumb, I could bring all these renegade tribes under my control,” Dominique said with what was probably as close to a level and rational demeanor as she was capable.

  “And why would you think that I would ever work for you?” I snapped.

  “Because, you idiot, I had your mom. Lindsay would ensure that you stayed in line.”

  “So you kill her the day after I escape?”

  “About that…I really misjudged you. I was certain that you would behave when I put the terms to you,” Dominique said. “I gave you more…credit.”

  I was about to answer when a pounding came on the door. I brought my crossbow up to my shoulder and raised my eyebrows. If Dominique said a word, I would shoot her before anybody ever managed to get in past the lock she had on the door. I honestly think that she did not believe me capable of doing anything as drastic as murdering another person.

  “What is it?” Dominique snapped, sounding about as normal as I recall from my encounters with her at Warehouse City.

  “Somebody set our oil drums on fire. We lost the entire supply,” a voice reported from the other side of the door.

  Dominique glared at me and her eyes asked the question, “One of yours?” I did my best to keep my expression neutral. I didn’t want her to know if I had anybody else with me…or how many.

  “And have you found this…saboteur?” she asked, her eyes never leaving mine.

  “No, ma’am.”

  Dominique’s eyes tightened a bit and I could see that she was not happy with that response. From behind her, I could see a flash of relief cross Mary’s face. I was hoping that my problem of being so damn readable was not an issue at the moment.

  “Well then why are you standing outside my door talking?” Dominique snapped. “Find whoever is responsible!”

  “Yes, ma’am,” came the reply.

  We waited a moment for whoever was outside to be gone. I lowered my crossbow from against my shoulder, but kept it aimed at the woman who had killed my mother for no apparent reason.

  “I still do not see why you felt the need to murder my mom and Phaedra.”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Dominique seemed genuinely surprised that I could not make my mind think like hers.

  “Should it be?”

  “Didn’t you read your mother’s journal?” she asked, and then added as what seemed to be an afterthought. “Interesting that I have heard there is a third book…but never seen it”

  “Of course I did.” I would not offer her anything when it came to information. Besides, there was no need to discuss anything about Meredith’s other journal; Dominique was no part of it.

  “Lindsay Hall and Phaedra Woods were abominations in the eyes of God,” Dominique said.

  I cannot really express on paper the manner in which she said those words. It was as if they explained everything. The problem I had was that I really did not understand what she was saying.

  Later, it was Mary who would explain to me that the Old World was very biased when it came to sexuality. I just never knew any different. In fact, I don’t know that I ever heard anything as I grew up that made a distinction about same-sex or different-sex relations. Maybe there were just too many other things to worry about for something so trivial to remain an “issue” with people.

  “Can that really be a reason?” I asked flippantly. “I mean, if God was so angry with them, wouldn’t he kill them himself?”

  “Watch your tongue, child!” Dominique snarled.

  So I had found her hot button. Apparently she was still Genesis Brotherhood crazy.

  “Maybe you forgot who was holding the crossbow,” I said as I thrust my weapon at her for a little added emphasis. “If there is anybody that should be careful about what they say…I’m thinking it is you.”

  “Do you think I fear you…or death?” Dominique laughed. “I have served God righteously for my entire life. Your whore of a mother tried to stop me, but all she did was make me more determined.”

  “So that is why you came to the Corridor with your army and started taking everybody…destroying all the hard work that people have put in to make a place that was safe?”

  “That place was nothing more than the new Sodom and Gomorrah,” Dominique spat bitterly. There was a glint to her eyes…and something else.

  I had grown up around Revelationists. Those are folks who believe that last book in the Bible is some sort of warning. They think we are in some sort of era that they call the “End Times.” Most of them are pretty normal people and you would not know they were Revelationists unless they told you, but then there are the others. They are flat out nuts.

  What I was seeing in Dominique’s eyes was something that was frightening. She was crazy. It makes me wonder, did all that time after what happened between her and Meredith just fester in her like a disease? Did she see me as an extension of my birth mother, and therefore, need to take out whatever had built up in her mind and apply it to me?

  “So you are saying that everybody there deserved what you did to them?”

  In the Corridor, ALL books are precious. The Bible is one of the books in the library. I’ve read it. Now, I doubt that I read it like a person who believes in the stuff written between the covers, I read it as a story. And it has lessons in it about how to treat people and be a good person. I understand those who see more than that…it just was not something that took root in our home.

  “So if you are comparing us to a pair of cities destroyed in the book that you profess to follow the teachings of, then did you try to find if there were any who deserved to be saved?” I was pretty proud of myself…until she replied.

  “That is why we took the little ones. Children are blameless in the eyes of the Lord.”

  She had me there.

  “But, according to you…every adult deserved to be executed
?”

  “You harbored sin within your walls,” Dominique said with a nasty sneer.

  “So even the people who did believe in your book…in your God…they fell short. And who are you to make that decision?”

  She glared back, her lips pressed tight. I was certain that I had her now. After all, besides the Revelationists, there were all sorts of people who held to a variety of faiths. We had Christians, Muslims, and everything in between. Some were good people, others not…just like every place I have been or heard about in my short life.

  “You should be thanking me,” Dominique growled. “I saved you from a life doomed to end in violence. Now, you are free to go forward and carve out a place for yourself without that dyke and her scar-faced bitch of a girlfriend or whatever she might be—”

  My bolt hit her in the throat and sent her head rocking back. Blood began to froth around her lips and her mouth opened and closed, emitting nothing more than a series of raspy squeaks. I heard Mary gasp as I moved in and kicked her onto her back. I set another bolt in place and cocked the weapon again.

  I stepped over to her and knelt down. I have no idea of knowing what was written on my face at that exact moment, but whatever it was, it made Dominique flinch. I leaned in close and made sure that I swallowed a few times to be certain that my throat would work. I didn’t want my voice to crack or anything when I spoke. I hoped to God that I sounded confident…and not terrified or about to be sick. And rest assured, both of those feelings were fighting for control of my body as I got close to Dominique.

  “You killed a wonderful human being who never did anything but show me how to love others. I may not know what I believe in exactly when it comes to God or anything like that, but I hope and pray that there is a Hell. If there is, I am certain that you will be there. Whatever suffering the keepers of Hell have in mind will never be enough, but I will make it my life’s work from this moment forward to wipe your legacy from this world. If I could…I would go back and find the part in Meredith’s book where you show up, and I would erase your name. But since I can’t do that, I will just have to destroy everything you have tried to create.

  “So, as you lay here…choking on your own blood and wishing that you were not so impotent…know that I will have your body dragged out to the woods where the animals will eat you…and eventually, they will shit you out, returning you to a state that is more fitting. And for the first time in your life, as you are absorbed back into the soil, you will actually do something helpful as you fertilizer the ground.”

  I stood up and watched as Dominique died. I was staring into her eyes when life left them…when that final spark went out. Twice I heard somebody pound on the door, but they never seemed to be that insistent so as to continue in their efforts when they received no answer.

  At some point, the man that Mary had rendered unconscious awoke. Looking back on it, I can almost find it in my heart to laugh at the fact that he didn’t seem too terribly surprised when he opened his eyes and found himself tied up.

  Mary said something to him and he stayed very still after that. I have no idea how long she left me be while I just stared at Dominique’s corpse. Part of me kept expecting her to sit up and laugh at me for being so stupid as to think that I could kill her. And, truth be told, I think that was exactly what she was thinking right up to the end.

  I stood up and faced Mary. Again, I have no idea what she was seeing in my expression, but she stepped back from me. I would like to believe that I looked just so fierce. However, I had only been on my feet for a few seconds when I promptly vomited.

  It was as if somebody had suddenly hit me in the gut as hard as they could. I have a brief memory of wishing that whoever had just knocked on the door (and then apparently went away when there was no reply) would barge in and just kill me. I felt a form of sick that I cannot describe; it was similar to when I had killed that first person. It felt like my entire being was rotten and needed to be scraped out and rebuilt from scratch.

  “Just take a few deep breaths,” Mary was whispering to me. Although I have no recollection of her taking my head into her lap, much less me ending up on the floor.

  I started shaking. If that had been the end of it, I could have walked out the door and we might have been able to sneak out into the woods. All my talk about undoing her legacy would probably have just gone by the wayside. I might have even given up and just wandered out into the middle of nowhere and faded into the shadows.

  Obviously the shaking was just the start. I began to cry. For those of you who have never gone into full-blown hysterics, you might dismiss this next bit as me just being a girl or whatever, but I cried like never before in my life. I could hardly breathe, and at one point, I think I might have blacked out for a few seconds. I could not hear, see, or speak. It was something that I pray I never again experience.

  It also is what brought about twenty soldiers.

  “Madam President?” a voice asked tentatively.

  There were a lot of requests from outside for the door to be opened up. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, Mary opened the door. I am not sure what exactly transpired, but I was briefly aware of people swarming in and then a whole bunch of shouting. Somebody grabbed my weapon and somebody else was trying to yank me to my feet. But then things get strange and I wish I could provide a bit more, but all I know is that several people got into a fight. More seemed to be busy protecting me and Mary than trying to hurt us.

  I was pushed back to the floor and the fight continued. To those who died, I wish I knew their names and I wish I could say something to them…a thanks or something…

  Eventually I was picked up and physically carried to another car on the train. A woman came in and stuck a needle in my arm. That was actually the first time in my life that I had experienced such a thing. I had never been given a shot of anything before. And I have to tell ya, I am not too sure that I ever want to again.

  When I came back around, I was in an actual bed. There was a blanket covering me and I could feel a cool breeze on my face. And then I smelled the very distinct aroma of bacon! I can count on my fingers and toes the number of times in my life I have had bacon.

  From what I understand, there was almost a decade without anybody having it. All of the farms and such where animals were kept before the zombies came met with a pretty nasty ending. It was actually the Natives who came on a visit from their walled state who brought back pigs for several of the communities. Sunset Fortress was lucky to receive twenty. The choice was made not to butcher any for the first three years as we grew our stock.

  I still remember everybody making this huge deal about bacon. I simply could not relate…and then Mama Lindsay made it for breakfast that first time. I know I am being silly, but after that first bite, I think I would have been building a wall around the first pig farm I found and just lived off of bacon until the day I died.

  Anyways, I wake to that smell and when I opened my eyes, Mary and Selina were sitting beside me. But that was only part of the surprise…

  “Hey, sleepy head,” Betty said with a snort as she mussed my hair.

  I felt a lump form in my throat, but fortunately it seemed as if I was all cried out. Instead, my mouth just opened and not a sound came out, but obviously they all saw what I was feeling.

  I was swarmed by all three and we just sat there hugging each other for a few minutes until a voice called out and broke up our little reunion.

  “If you ladies are hungry, I suggest you make it to the chow car,” a man said.

  “That’s William,” Betty whispered. “William Alexander was the fourth or fifth in command after Major Carson. He will want to talk to you most likely.”

  “She is going to need a few minutes to get her head around what we are going to tell her,” Mary said.

  “A few minutes?” Selina scoffed. “I haven’t slept yet and I still don’t really know what to think.”

  I let all of that stuff just drift back into a dark corner
of my brain as I got up. And that’s when the after-effects of whatever they injected me with hit me. I felt like my brain was trying to come out through my temples. If my stomach would have had anything in it, I would have tossed it right there. It took a few seconds to get my feet to move and I had to shake off Selina twice as she tried to help me walk. I wanted to do it on my own. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the gesture, but I simply did not want to be touched at that moment.

  Looking back on that decision, I think it was worth the momentary hurt feelings that Selina ended up with when I pushed her hands away. I walked into the “chow” car and discovered that it was full. Every single conversation stopped. Every set of eyes locked on me.

  At first, I was concerned. The intensity in some of the looks were very unsettling and I could not tell if what I was seeing was anger or not.

  Then…the first person started clapping and stood up. One at a time, everybody else in the room followed suit. There were a few shouts and some cheering, but mostly it was a thundering cacophony of hands slapping together.

  When it finally settled down, a few voices called out “speech, speech!” and that sort of thing. I was clueless. First, what was I supposed to give a speech about…and second, but actually a bit more urgent, I had no idea what had prompted this response.

  “Snoe will have plenty of time to talk with all of you,” William spoke from right behind me. “But how about we let her get something to eat first?”

  The crowd began taking their seats and that was when I noticed that there was a single table where nobody was sitting. That was also when I first took in the scenery as it whizzed past. I was on the train!

  When I took my seat, a tiny man whose eyes barely peeked over the table came up. He set a block of wood on the floor and stepped up onto it.