The next morning Ed brought an Expedition to door nine. He, James, and Tony would escort the Holdens to Ames, Iowa. Before the zombies hit, it had been a small city of about fifty-five thousand population. They'd be dropped off near a drug store or liquor store of their choice. At least half of our crew gathered to say goodbye. Some again tried to dissuade them from leaving and several cried, knowing they’d not see these two again in their lifetimes.
I'd resigned myself to their choice and stayed inside rather than embrace the stupidity of it.
Since the Grace vs. Kelly hair pulling match, I'd talked to Kira and Vivian several times about their progress with Grace the problem child. They'd felt they had been hard but firm and compassionate with her, and both felt their efforts were slowly being rewarded.
I waited more than a month before I checked the job schedule to learn the trio's current work assignment. With my trusty rifle in hand I headed for the barn. The three of them were scheduled to muck out the stalls and put in new straw for the horses and cows. Then they were to handle the nightly milking chore. At four I walked slowly in the afternoon sunshine wishing for more than the slightest of hot breezes that blew out of the southwest.
Before I reached the barn, I heard the noise of a group of zombies coming from the woods to the west side of the barn. I hit a dead run before I heard multiple rifle blast and watched the seven decomposed bodies of the undead attackers fall leaving an uneven string of corpses in the foot high alfalfa.
I radioed the watchtowers. "This is Tom. Everything is under control at the barn; the zombies have been dealt with. Please get in touch with Vince and ask him to bring a backhoe and bury seven zombies. Kira, Vivian and Grace will be his guards while he makes like an undertaker and performs the burial ceremony."
Inside the barn, I heard muted voices outside the structure at the north end. The crew must have felt they deserved a break after dealing with their attackers. At the open single entrance door next to the big equipment doors, I stopped to listen. The women were engaged in an intense conversation.
Vivian's voice sounded soft but stern. "Look, Little One, you're not the only woman whose life has been hard and shitty. I know exactly how you feel because I've been there too."
Grace shot back. "I really doubt that either of you have ever been abused by men the way I have. I bet with your looks, both of you led the good life before this zombie crap happened. Me, I always had to defend myself, even from my bastard father and hare-brained brothers." There was a short space of silence. Softly she continued. "Have either of you ever been raped? I bet not."
Kira and Vivian both spoke at once, but Kira continued alone. "Grace, stop feeling so sorry for yourself and be happy for the chance you have here. Learn to adjust and roll with the punches. As for rape, I was captured by a group of asshole outlaws last year. I was beaten, raped and sodomized. They planned to feed me to the zombies after the entire group of at least a dozen was finished having rough, perverted sex with me."
Not deterred, Grace replied, "What about you Viv? I've got you pegged as having the easy rich life."
"Rich your ass, child. My parents in Mexico were poor to the point of starving. They sent me to the US when I was twelve to live with relatives. I was smuggled into the country illegally. When I was sixteen, I thought I knew everything about life. I met a guy and got pregnant. He was twenty-three. My aunt and uncle raised the little boy because I ran off with my boyfriend." The talking stopped. "If either of you repeat what I'm about to tell you I'll kill you and then hate you forever. My boyfriend, he was a lazy, drunken bastard and pimped me out on the streets of L.A. He made me his puta, his private whore. I've been a prostitute since I was seventeen. I've been beaten, raped and forced to do tricks with multiple guys or get coat hangered. Do you know what I'm speaking of, Little One? No? Well that's when your pimp has his friends gangbang you as rough as they want anyway they want. While they're doing you, he takes a wire coat hanger and pulls it out straight so it's two stiff wires. Then his friends put you on your back and hold you down while they spread your legs apart. With the coat hanger, he beats your thighs and keeps working upward to your womanhood. Then your belly and breasts get whipped, and it starts all over again until he's sure you get the message. By then you're screaming bloody murder, crying and begging him to stop and promising you'll do anybody anyway he tells you. And all the while, he and his friends are laughing because they're high and don't give a god damn about you. You only think you've had it rough, child. Buck up and stop whining. Make something of yourself before you get tossed out of here. The luckiest thing that ever happened to me before Deliverance was being taken to Seattle where I was put to work as a high class call girl. This is the best life I've ever seen because they treat me good and nobody messes with my body or my head."
Grace started apologizing, and I detected a little blubbering in her voice as I made my way out
