The bank became silent. No noise came from the vault. The entire building was now a tomb. I shouldered my club, and made for the door.
Brimming with hate, and determined to take revenge, I went back to the mill to get supplies, but instead I collapsed. The truth and the confessions. The dying man in the safe. The killers. It was all too much. I told myself that I couldn’t just march door to door until I find him and then kill an entire band of people. I decided to take the next day to plan, and then begin to carefully extract vengeance for what Kyle and his group did to my town.
That was my state when Sebastian found me. I head him calling for me and pounding on door after door. I was mad at him for disturbing me more than I was that he was attracting zombies with all that noise.
I pulled a side door open and squinted against the morning sun. Sebastian was off to my left, pounding away at a freight door.
“Hey!” I yelled. “The hell you want?”
“Kyle,” he breathed. His eyes were wild and full of panic. He rushed to me but pulled up short. “Are you drunk?”
“It’s my day off,” I replied.
“But it’s still morning, I…”
“I said, it’d my day off,” I growled. “Why are you here?”
“I was hoping for your help.” The phrase didn’t seem to humble him the way it would have me.
“No,” I answered and turned to go back in. I had enough to do on my own, I didn’t need side jobs from anyone else. Sebastian followed and closed the door behind us. I glowered at him, then barred us in and wandered off to the stairs. “Stay if you like, but don’t think you’re going to move your whole group in here,” I threatened.
“They’re all dead,” he replied.
That stopped me in my tracks.
“All of them?” I asked, and Sebastian nodded. A laugh slipped out and I said, “Got ’em all collected in your shop?” I laughed again and pushed the envelope a little further, “Catching bunnies and puppies and homeless to keep them fed and healthy?”
“They’re not zombies, Kyle,” he said icily.
“Lucky for you!” I pointed out and started up the stairs.
“It was men, Kyle. They broke in, and when we resisted they attacked us. At least three of us got away, but I don’t know where the other two are. They took everything, Kyle.”
Without turning around I ask, “Bertha?”
“By the time they were done raping her I’m sure they killed her.”
One of my knees wobbled and gave out. I steadied myself on a handrail. At this point, I wasn’t sure if it was the booze or the news that was having this effect on me. Was it Kyle’s gang?
“And you’re busily getting drunk for breakfast,” he said with venom.
“When did they come?”
“Last night,” he spat. “I came straight here for your help.”
That made me wheel around. “What do you want with me, Sebastian? Huh? What am I supposed to do?”
“They killed your family. They killed mine.”
The images of my loved ones dying in our car, their blood spilling out of the car doors and the look in the eyes of the men as they stole everything from me.
“Might not be the same crew,” I pointed out.
“Does that matter?” Sebastian asked, his voice rising. “These men are the same as the ones that killed your parents, Kyle. And they will continue to do so until someone does something about it.”
I fell silent and stared at the man before me. Was he handing over the very men I wanted? Could it really be them?
“I want you to help me stop them…” His voice cut off at the sudden moaning and clanging coming from the other side of the room. “The hell?” Sebastian turned and for the first time he spied my pen. Eight zombies were crammed into a dog run I had found at the hardware store. It was sixteen by five, and I was currently trying to find out how many deadies I could jam in there at once. “Are those…”
“They sure as hell ain’t pets,” I assured him.
“Is it safe to keep them like that?” he asked in a wavering voice.
“Probably not,” I agreed, “but you’re one to talk. So,” I said, abruptly changing gears, “what’s your plan?”
Sebastian was having trouble looking away from the collection, but when he did his statement floored me. “I heard how you handled the zombies at the shop. I want to treat these bastards to a similar fate.”
I laughed and let my eyes wander about the ceiling. “You want me to murder them?”
“I want you to help me bring them to justice, and to answer for what they have done,” he declared.
“You want me to play Sheriff?”
“Or deputy if you like. Just… I need your help in this.”
I looked at the broken man before me and I knew what my answer had to be. Sebastian was going to confront them with or without me. Either way he was destined to die, but this was exactly the chance I was hoping for.
I turned and headed up the stairs.
“So that’s it?” he cried.
“I have to eat before I kill all the bad people, ‘Bastian.”
◊◊◊
We headed up South Murphy, looking for a house that was fortified.
“How do you know they’re up here?” Sebastian asked. “All I heard was they were by Meadow Lake.”
“A little ghost told me.” I said cryptically. I didn’t explain, but Sebastian didn’t ask me to.
We knew the house as soon as we saw it. Two fences. One was the original cyclone fence and the other looked like homeless people build a barricade. The barrier was a long line of junk, interspersed with spikes and barb wire. Climbing through would not be an option and getting over would be loud and messy. Not to mention how badly we would be exposed.
I decided that we would circle
