RABs Ch. 01

The sword in Jerry's hand flicked almost as if it had a life of its own. When it settled down again, Diego was bleeding from a long slash across his chest.

"That was only a warning," sneered Jerry. "I told you to get the fuck out of here. That one was only deep enough to draw blood. I didn't do any permanent damage. The next time I see you, I'll kill you."

"The old man said I could stay for a week," whined Diego. "I've still got four days. Aaaah!" His protest was cut off as Jerry's sword flicked again, this time Diego had blood from a cut on his forehead. That was all it took. Diego saw that Jerry was serious. He couldn't be convinced. He couldn't be conned and he intended to kill him no matter what Sven or anyone else had to say about it.

I knew if he did, that no one in our community would raise a finger to defend Diego and probably not me either. I slumped in the corner crying. My entire world had been shattered by my own stupidity. I'd tried to make Jerry jealous. I'd also tried to scheme and get pregnant. I'd even in the back of my mind thought that somehow I'd have been able to convince Jerry that the baby would have been his. I'd been very sure that Diego would have left town and no one would have ever considered that anyone except Jerry had been the father.

There was also the fact that at first I really had found Diego attractive. I hadn't intended to betray Jerry, but I had wondered what sex with Diego would have been like. It was only idle curiosity. Before I met Jerry, I'd only had sex a few times. I just wondered what it would have been like with another man.

I started praying as I watched Diego run towards the door with Jerry watching him like a cat playing with a mouse before he kills it.

Jerry's eyes turned towards me then. I had never seen a look that cold on his face. The man I loved was calmly and unemotionally assessing the pluses and minuses of killing me as I looked at him.

I heard a sound then and Jerry's head flicked back to the door. At first I'd thought that Diego was trying to open the front door, but I noticed that he hadn't gotten there yet. He'd thrown his shirt over himself to cover his nakedness, but the injury to his ass kept him from moving too quickly.

The door opened then and Roy Thomas poked his head inside. Seeing an almost naked Diego approaching the door he stepped inside with a look of alarm on his face. Roy Thomas was the biggest guy in camp. He was over six foot eight and three hundred pounds. He had coal black skin and his voice sounded like boulders crashing down a mountain side. He was probably the smartest man in our camp.

He was the guy who got our electricity to work. People took one look at him and thought he was a fighter, but Roy was our electrical contractor. Diego didn't know that. As he saw Roy he stopped short quivering in fear.

"He told me to go," shrieked Diego.

"Without getting dressed?" asked Roy looking at Jerry.

"He said he'd killed me if I didn't get out. He cut me," whined Diego. "I was unarmed. And he cut me."

"Get the fuck out of my house and take her with you," repeated Jerry. "Roy, tell the people in the medical tent that if anyone treats him, I won't bring back medical supplies anymore. He is not to receive so much as a fucking band aid."

Roy nodded his massive head. "What about Dana?" he asked.

"I haven't touched her," said Jerry calmly. "And I never will again."

"Okay," said Roy. I think he got the picture then because he looked at me as if I was dirt. "Anyway, Jerry, it's a good thing you came back...Why did you come back so early?"

"I thought that I'd been over reacting and angry at Dana for nothing. I came back to get her to take her with me," smirked Jerry. "Some over reaction, huh?"

"Well it's still good for us and for you," said Roy. "You should probably come to the wall and quickly."

Jerry grabbed a napkin off the table and wiped the tip of his sword off and then sheathed it. Without even turning to face me he spoke to me over his shoulder. "Be gone by the time I get back," he said.

I pulled my shirt over my head and pulled my pants back up. I probably should have gotten my things together, but I was more interested in what was going on that they'd need to call Jerry to the wall. If Sven had some kind of crazy assed mission that Jerry needed to go on, I was going with him. I always went with him. Just because he was angry at me it didn't mean that I'd let him go off alone and get killed.

As I opened the door, I noticed that everyone was heading for the wall. I ran to the wall too. I saw Jerry, who was a little bit ahead of me, walking quickly towards the ladder to the walkway with Roy. Several people joined them and matched steps with them. I know Jessie was one of them. By the time I got to the wall, I saw Sven, Jessie and Jerry looking at something outside of the wall. Sandy was there too. Slung diagonally across her back, the way Jerry carried his sword, she had something. As I got closer, I noticed that it was the longest gun I'd ever seen. The fucking thing was probably longer than she was tall.

She looked up at Jerry as they stood on the wall. She said something to him and he answered her. She rubbed her hand on his back and then looked at me. Even from my distance, I could see that the look on her face was part pity, part concern, but with a lot of joy thrown in as well.

I'd been right all along, that bitch wanted my man and I'd thrown him right into her fucking lap.

I walked past the men standing near the ladder and as usual they assumed that I was supposed to be with Jerry. They moved out of my way and I climbed to the top. Once I got to the top of the walkway, my intention had been to talk to Sven. He was an old and smart man. He'd dealt with all kinds of problems during his life. I was sure that he'd run into problems like ours before. As I thought of it, I remembered a few people who had been together for long periods of time that suddenly weren't. I also remembered couples that had separated for a while and then gotten back together. I was sure that Sven could help me.

All of those thoughts were lost as I looked over the wall. I saw them then. RABs, there were hundreds of them. And they were all heading towards us. Some of them walked. Others ran. Some shuffled on broken limbs, but they all foamed at the mouth. And they were screaming and biting at the air as they approached. Sometimes they even turned and bit each other. Fear like I'd never known filled me then. In all of my years, there had never been an attack on our camp. We'd prepared for it. But I don't remember more than four or five RABs ever gathering outside of our walls at one time, ever. Usually the shooters would just pick them off and we never heard about it, it wasn't big news. But this time there were far more RABs gathering outside of our gate than we had people inside.

At that moment I realized I needed to be with Jerry. I needed him wrap his arms around me and smiled at me and tell me that he'd kill them all. I walked towards Sven and Jerry noticed me. I guess that during his shock at seeing all of the RABs gathering he'd forgotten about our problems. He headed for Sven as well.

"Sven," both Jerry and I called out at the same time.

"I want a divorce," Jerry said.

"I want us to stay together," I said even louder. Sven turned back towards the wall.

"How many of them do you think there are?" he asked Jerry.

"I have no idea," said Jerry. Sven had changed the subject even while we stood there.

"The two of you need to talk this over and be sure," said Sven.

"I've been trying to talk to him since this whole thing started," I said.

"There's nothing to talk about," said Jerry. "We're done. No one can make me stay with her. I was just trying to do it legally for the good of the community."

"That is the right thing to do, Jerry," said Sven. "Do you think there's something different about these RABs? Maybe the virus has mutated. Do you think that one of them is actually controlling them or directing them?"

"Let's find out," said Jerry. "Sand."

Before he said another word Sandy was beside him and smiling. Jerry picked up the two sets of binoculars that were always on the wall.

He handed one set to Sven and looked through the other. "Sandy, take out the guy by the tree about fifty yards out. He's yelling a lot. If they have a leader it might be him. After that there's a woman a hundred yards past him, they all seem to be avoiding her and I can't tell if it's random or if she's special."

Sven looked at Jerry. "You're kidding right?" he asked. Jerry shook his head. Sandy unslung the huge sniper rifle she'd been carrying. She lined up her sights and pulled the trigger. The retort from the big gun was the loudest I'd ever heard. I noticed that the big guy by the tree suddenly fell.

"Holy shit," screamed Jessie. "She blew his head completely off of his body."

Sandy barely paused before pulling the trigger again. I heard the loud thump from the big gun as she pulled the trigger and a cheer went up from the guys on the wall that had binoculars.

Even Sven was impressed. "That was a hell of a shot," he gushed.

"She's not done," said Jerry. "Sandy there's another guy, a smaller, spindly guy back at the ridge. He isn't walking this way like all the others, he's just watching them. He could be so badly brained damaged that he doesn't come towards us. He could also be still alive and the virus hasn't totally taken him over yet. But he could also be directing them and just waiting to see what we do. Do you see him?"

"Yes," she said. "He seems fidgety."

"I'm don't like them when they're fidgety," said Jerry. The big gun boomed again.

"That's incredible," said Sven. "That had to be at least a quarter of a mile away."

"That's my girl," said Jerry. I was filled with more rage than I remember ever having in my life. That bitch was not Jerry's girl. I was. He was taking this all way too far. He'd promised me for years that we'd always be together, no matter what. I made one mistake and now he not only refused to talk to me but he was kicking me to the curb for Annie Oakley Barbie.

"I don't think they're organized," said Jerry. "I think it's just a huge herd moving around and we just happened to be in their path. We're lucky that we have the compound. Anyone, even larger groups of people caught out in the open could be killed easily."

"I think that if they can't get inside, eventually they'll move on," said Sven.

"I agree," said Jerry.

"Jerry, you have to give this some time. The two of you have been together for a very long time. Think about it carefully. You may feel differently in a couple of days," said Sven.

"A couple of days, a couple of years," said Jerry. "I won't feel any differently ever. I'm not trying to cause any problems but as soon as these RABs are gone, this town is going to be smaller. Either they're leaving or I am. If I see him, I'm going to kill him. There's no need for me to talk to her. She did whatever she did for whatever reasons she had. She doesn't need to explain any of it to me because I don't care."

"How about a compromise?" asked Sven. "She betrayed you, Jerry. I know it hurts, but she didn't actually do anything that is technically illegal. If the two of you can't work this out, I'll let you keep your house and find other arrangements for her. The two of you can just stay clear of each other until the pain fades away."

"I guess, I'll have to live with that," said Jerry. "How long do I have to wait until this is all settled?"

"At least until these RABs are all gone or a couple of days," he said.

"Get me a couple of boxes of ammunition and I'll clear all of the RABs out of here in an hour," smirked Sandy.

Jerry smiled for the first time in days. "That's my girl," he said again. That was all it took. As bad as my life had been until that moment, it got worse. I was so angry that I couldn't see straight. I ran at Sandy and pushed her over the edge of the wall.

"That bitch is not your girl," I screamed. "Let's see how you like her as a RAB."

The wall is fifteen to eighteen feet tall so the fall wasn't deadly. Sandy looked more upset that she'd gotten dirt on her gun than hurt. I was horrified by what I'd done. As we watched, some of the RABs that are close to the wall turned towards her, their jaws snapping in anticipation. What happened next filled me with even more terror.

"Get a rope," screamed Jerry. Then he plunged over the side of the wall to join her. What had I done?

To be concluded next week in RABs part 2