The Broken and the Dead

Rico spent most of the night hooking up the radio to a bank of car batteries and to an antenna on the roof. Everyone coming with us spent the time packing and getting ready for relocation. The Doc had arranged for an old sun bleached Chevy Lumina (that might once have been maroon) to be the additional vehicle which made Klein’s eyebrows to go up in a manner that I personally found hilarious. I hated to admit it but I was looking forward to getting away from these peeps and back to the lodge. These guys always looked at me like I was a freak or some kind of 5 year old psychopath. To be honest I didn’t understand them either, it was like they hadn’t figured out that the world was shit and if you wanted to survive in it the old way of looking at things just wasn’t going to cut it.

By dawn we were ready to pull out so Klein radioed in our ETA to Tucker, he was weird on the radio, I mean weirder that usual, so much so that it made Klein look to me for an explanation. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything to offer so I just shrugged and looked at Rico who said “Don’t look at me; I never did get that guy.”

Ms. Boudreaux and Ms. King rode with us, Ms. West drove the Chevy with the other five volunteers; the Lieutenant talked quietly to the two older ladies. Ms. Boudreaux was almost seventy Ms. King was closing in on 60 pretty quick. Ms. King had run the Hilltop Café for years and she quickly offered her skills as chef and chief chef for the lodge. Klein was thrilled and soon after Ms. Boudreaux had been conscripted as her assistant. Well, I guess that was useful at least, I was skeptical that the others would be so eager to pitch in but only time would tell.

I knew I was being lazy but as we drove I let my attention wander and my mind filled with random thoughts. The train was rapid and hard to follow but went something like: Lucy to Elaine to bandanas to bananas to grocery stores to Mom to Dad to mysterious vanishings to big foot. I know it’s crazy but that’s what I thought about. I wondered why thinking about mom didn’t hurt so much and what she looked like when we took the exit and made the turn onto the service road towards the lodge. I wondered for a moment if I was losing my mind; I decided that most likely I was and I just didn’t give a damn.

Our mini-convoy pulled into the circle drive around 8 AM and came to a stop, as we exited I looked up and saw Deputy Weir on roof look out. He waived to me, his eyes hidden behind his stereotypical mirrored sun glasses, and I nodded back. A flash went through my mind, I liked him because he didn’t talk and right now that was enough. As we got everyone unloaded our people came out to meet the new people and to hug and cuddle with Janey. Only Weir and Tucker were missing, since Weir was on over-watch that left only Tucker as missing. Karen came over and stood next to me so I asked her about OMT, she said he was gone again.

“Again?” I asked.

Karen leaned in closer to me so no one else could hear;

“Johnny, come with me I have to show you something.”

I nodded and followed her unnoticed by the others who were too excited to see Janey and to meet the new people. She led me upstairs to Tuckers room, it was a mess, He had set up a card table and it was coved in pages and pages of math and hand draw diagrams.

“What is all this? I asked.

“No idea but there is more, come on,” she said pulling on my arm.

We went to the roof, he had set up the last of Rico’s radios and he had taken one of the solar panels to run it. The antenna had been replaced with a lazy-Suzan from the spice cabinet with a large empty coffee can laying on its side nailed to the end of a broom handle standing straight through both the table and the spice rack. It stood like a flag pole; the crowning glory of his ridiculous contraption. He had drawn the letter ’N; and degrees all around the edge of the spinning spice rack. On the umbrella covered table was also a notepad and a pen. He was recording something. Date and time, direction and another value that didn’t make a lick of sense to me.

“So what is he doing? I asked.

I looked at Karen and saw the concern in her eyes.

“I don’t know but he isn’t sleeping, he spends all his time with this thing then he limps down the stairs.”

She looked away ashamed then she held out her hand to me without saying another word. I took the empty pill bottle from her and read the label.

“We have to show this to Amy and Lt. Klein.”

I said and taking her hand we went down the stairs as fast as we could manage them.

We found them in the kitchen along with Rico, Elaine and Ms. West. Amy looked up at me with a smile that vanished when she saw my face.

“Johnny? What’s wrong?” she asked.

I handed her the pill bottle and as she read the label I added

“It’s Tucker, they say he has gone strange.”

She stared at the label and said nothing it was Lt. Klein who asked “Strange how?”

Ms. West asked “Mr. Tucker? The Tucker who was with Janey the other day?”

I just watched while Karen explained and Elaine offered her insights. Amy just held they bottle while they told the new ones about tucker and what he had done and how he had been beaten for his sins. I watched as the empty bottle was passed around until it eventually found its way back to Amy. At last, I thought, at last they all know what I have always known. Tucker was dangerous, a criminal, a psychopath. Klein, West, and Rico went with Karen to see the machine and probably to look for a tin foil hat. Elaine went to check on Lucy who was playing with the new kids under their Mother’s watchful eye, it left only Amy and me. I sat down across from her and waited. She looked at me and said

“This only means two things: first he was very sad before all of this and his name is John.”

I practically barked a laugh,

“And his magic box and the scribbles and nonsense he is writing down?” I said with sour venom dripping from my lips.

“I don’t know Johnny, show me?” She said.

“OK. Fine.” I said, I was confident I had him now.

The others joined us in Tuckers room, everyone was looking at the gibberish I could hardly contain myself. They wouldn’t hang him for being crazy but they sure would not let him run around free. Some people searched his room but when Kyle found a photo Elaine snatched it away and put it back from its hiding place.

“Since when is it a crime to have a picture of people you love?” she snapped. “Come on Lucy let’s get out of here.”

She took Lucy’s hand and stormed out. I shook my head at her silliness. That was when Klein opened her big mouth.

“Look, this isn’t gibberish. Its mathematics and it’s pretty high level shit. I took three semesters of calculus and a course in ODEs and I only recognize about half of the symbols.”

She paused and then asked Amy,

“What did you say he did for a living?”

Amy shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, I though he was retired, he never talked about it.”

The Lt. laid the papers back down and said

“Well, let’s wait till he gets back and ask him.”

I couldn’t believe it, he was going to slip away again,

“What about the drugs?” I demanded.

“We will ask him about that too.” Ms. West added but when she put her hand on my shoulder I spun away and out of the room.

Later after dinner I had calmed down and sat in as the others discussed the things they had discovered about what OMT was doing. I was impressed with both Klein and West, they worked well together, they had arranged things in such a way that the pieces started to fit together. The Z’s were on a schedule, they broadcast around 10AM, again about 6 PM and then 2AM. Each day the times were a minute or two later. Ms. West said that they were probably going by the sun and OMT’s notes said that he thought their range was limited and that by using his directional antenna he could pick up three or four different signals. OMTs notebook recorded time, directions in degrees measured from North and next to that was also a column of measurements in dBu whatever those were. I looked over Elaine’s shoulder at OMTs notes and saw (a long time later I actually copied it down)

That’s when I came up with what I now call William’s Theory #1:

“Math sucks the most when there aren’t any numbers”.

Klein stopped and with a strange expression said in a slow, precise voice.

“Tucker is tracking them.”

Then for reasons that escaped me, she smiled. Just then Deputy Weir put his head in the door and said,

“Unknown vehicle is coming slowly up the drive.”

We scrambled fast and as I ran down the stairs, a .308 caliber M4 held in both hands I wondered why on Earth any kid would play war. War sucks. I went out the back door just behind Rico, we sprinted to along the tree line and both clambered up into our sniper hut. I was surprised when the rifle we put in there had been replaced with something big and long, boxy, and deadly looking. I whispered to Rico,

“What the hell is that?”

He spoke over his shoulder “Barrett, fifty cal sniper rifle.”

As he worked the bolt I got my first glimpse of that menacing round and it made me shiver. I set up next to Rico and picking up the binoculars I looked down the road.

“What do you see?” Rico asked.

I hesitated a moment then answered him,

“A trash truck.”

The thing was old and banged up, the back was one of those enclosed ones, and the truck was rocking from side to side as it slowly creeped up the drive.

“Can you see the driver?” Rico asked.

I sighed, lowered the binocs and closing my eyes I sighed as I answered him. “It’s Tucker.”

It didn’t take long after that before the truck pulled around the circle drive and shut down. Rico and I walked in from the sniper station and others came out from either side of the lodge and Weir stood up on the roof station. I could see Tucker before the others as he climbed down from the cab.

“Hey, hey, hey Mista Tucker!” Rico called out.

As Tucker turned around to answer I could see that his eyes were wild, barely slits in his swollen face. He was limping, slightly hunched over and he was holding his left arm strangely, palm up, like he was cradling a football.

“Rico! Good to see you!” then he smiled at me

“John!” and he reached up and placed his right hand on my shoulder pretending that he cared. We walked around the front of the truck and most of the others gathered around us. Suddenly there was a tremendous banging sound from the back of the truck. Anyone with a weapon, me included swept it into position to open fire on trash bin. It didn’t stop in fact it seemed to get more intense when people started freaking out about it.

“Calm down everyone! Calm down!”

Old Man Tucker yelled and for the most part we did. Lucy was hiding behind Amy and several others had retreated inside the lodge.

“Tucker? What on Earth do you have in there?” Lt. Klein demanded.

He looked at her and waved his good arm at it,

“I caught one of them, one of the monsters.”

There were murmurs of:

“Out of his mind”,

“You gotta be kidding me”,

“Jez-zus Kree-iste”, lots of things like that.

Ms. West stormed out of the group and stood nose to nose with Tucker, I thought she was going to say something but she just stared at him, fury in her eyes, her hands trembling into fists. Tucker just stood there, he didn’t look angry or scared, he didn’t raise his hands to defend himself, and it was eerie.

Lt. Klein made her way between them, gently separating them,

“Alright children, cleansing breaths” she said.

She took an exaggerated breath and exhaled it slowly. West didn’t take a step back really, instead she just readjusted her feet as she leaned backwards in response to Klein’s intrusion. Tucker took a step or two and opened the passenger door of the trash truck and pulled out a military style back pack by its strap, the strap of his Thompson along with it. The pack was heavy I could tell by the way he grunted as he shrugged it up onto his right shoulder. Tucker started towards the steps,

“Come on everyone, I’m starved, after I’ve eaten I’ll explain everything I have got going.” He said.

West’s eyes grew wide and she stared after him, her left arm slowly rising to point at the trash truck. The creature within going crazy, I could see the metal deforming with each blow and I felt my insides quiver with each one. I couldn’t stop myself from imagining it in there, it’s sleek black body armor, those cruel jaws and suddenly felt like I was going to pee my pants. I felt someone take my arm and pull me towards the lodge, I turned to see Karen Morena looking at me,

“Come on Johnny, let’s go inside.” she said.

Tucker took a can of chili and a can of peaches from the back pack. He opened them both as Elaine handed him a spoon, Amy reached in front of him and took the chili away before he could start eating she said

“We still have the stove you idiot.”

Tucker started to protest. Amy turned and poured the chili into a pan and the gas range clicked a few times before it lit. Tucker started to eat the peaches but Lucy climbed onto his lap and intercepted the spoon on its way to Tuckers mouth. Tucker didn’t flinch he just smiled, but the smile disappeared when Lucy told him that her friends Gina and Jordan needed some. Then he laughed as he picked up the can and handed it to her, as she climbed down he snatched the spoon away and said that she had to get her own.

“So, while I’m waiting I guess I can tell you about what I have learned.”

Klein cut Tucker off and said “We figured out you were tracking the Zs.”

Tucker nodded for a second then it turned into a shake,

“Sort of” he said. “But I will be soon. I just dropped off a second directional antenna at the post office.”

Klein crossed her arms across her chest, “Triangulation.” was all she said. Tucker smiled and nodded.

“I have a basic estimate for range from the signal strength. I think it is inverse square degradation and my current working theory is that they only broadcast in groups of forty-ish.”

West interrupted “Okay, I’ll bite, so why is that so damn important?”

Tucker ignored the snippy tone and explained

“Because they need a pattern, it’s all a pattern, don’t you see?”

Tuckers voice had a frantic sound to it.

“The humming pods form a grid and they exchange information at predetermined times” he added.

“We know about the times, we saw your charts” Amy said.

She set his chili down in front of him.

He spoke with a mouthful, hurriedly

“I can’ t decode their signals, not sure I could without a supercomputer or a big bad ass Beowulf cluster, but I do know one thing, at the beginning of each broadcast there is a series of clicks and what I call clucks. I think those clicks and clucks are binary identifiers.” he said.

He shoveled another spoonful into his mouth a weird smile halfway hidden behind his long grey mustache.

“What does that mean?” Deputy Weir asked as he leaned against the counter a cup of coffee in his hand. I swear that guy was either on the roof with the binoculars or in the kitchen with a cup of coffee.

“It means my friend, that they have identifiers, each pod is unique, and if we are lucky, very, very lucky. They have rank and ...”

It was then that Klein interrupted,

“If they have rank and if we can find the number one pod, we can cut the head off the beast.”

The sound of Tucker’s spoon scrapping on his bowl was the sound track as he amended

“At least the local one.”

Everyone was muttering and talking amongst themselves then Diane West’s voice over whelming the others, demanding an answer,

“What about the monster in the truck?”

Again Tucker ignored her tone instead gently thanking Amy for a cup of coffee.

“Well the short answer is I need it to experiment on, to try a few things I have in mind, not the least, I want to know if there is another way to kill it other than blowing it apart.”

Ms. West looked at the old man and said

“As long as it ends up dead.”

OMT looked up at her and said in a deep, gravelly voice that made me shiver,

“I guarantee it.”

Things seemed to settling down when the Lt. said

“Alright Tucker, spill, how did you catch the monster?”

He rubbed is bristly chin and told us his story,

“I was going up highway 8 towards the University, I hoped to find an oscilloscope and maybe a couple of decent laptops when I saw smoke on the horizon.”

He drank from a cup of coffee then went on,

“There was a county road that crossed the highway with a sign that said ’State of West Virginia, Highway Maintenance Center’. The smoke was coming from that direction so I turned that way, after a mile or so I pulled to the side of the road and got out to check things out.”

I looked at Tucker and his expression was distant, more like he was describing something that happened long ago rather that last night or this morning. He said

“I could hear gunfire, not much but some, shotgun I think.”

He looked deep into his coffee like he had found a bug or something.

“I took my Thompson, clicked off the safety and headed towards the shooting on foot. The smoke was coming from the admin building, the gunfire too. There was one monster dead on the fence, before I could get in range to hit anything one of the monsters ran, jumped through a picture window and disappeared inside, the gunfire stopped. A moment later a woman with a baby in her arms dashed from the admin towards what I thought I figured was a garage. “

His voice was getting low and he wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone; Amy gently put her hand on his, being a skillful ass, Tucker used that hand to lift his coffee to his lips.

“Just as she passed the open back of the truck another monster tackled her to the ground, as she fell she threw the baby into the open hopper. The smallest monster hopped in after it. I was running as fast…”

His voice trailed away and he took another drink. His eyes were closed as he went on

“I shot the one on the mother in the back of the head, then I ran to the side of the truck and pulled the hydraulic pressure relief lever. The damn thing was so…so…well it didn’t even stop until the hatch slammed shut.”

“There was one left, and it was coming out of the admin building when it saw me. It charged, I shot it fourteen times before it slid to a stop at my feet. I searched the building, found the body of a guy who must have worked there, he was wearing a WVHD jacket.”

He sipped again at his cup then said,

“It looks like they had a cooking fire get out of hand. Their own fire attracted the monsters.”

He sat there a minute but I had the strange feeling that something wasn’t being told, something here didn’t ring true. While I had no way to find it out I suddenly had a sick feeling, it was all too convenient that the mother was tackled just as she passed a trash truck with the crusher. Why was a trash truck at the highway department anyway? Didn’t they have snow plows and such? I suddenly saw what must have happened, Tucker must have used that poor kid as bait, I hated him now more than ever. After that he drained his cup, got up and wordlessly went out of the kitchen.

The group stayed and talked for a few minutes before they started, this time I kept what I knew to myself, I wasn’t going to let Tucker know that anyone suspected the truth, not yet anyway. Ms. West, Rico, and Elaine stayed to talk but when Mrs. Driscol left the room I followed her, she had always been a little too friendly towards Tucker and I wanted to keep an eye on things. In the lobby I saw the new lady, Mrs. Hardy playing a game with her two little girls and Lucy. I suddenly was envious of them, they were still kids, I was a 12 year old warrior and I was sick of death, guns, pain and lies. But I knew it was too late for me, I could never be a kid again.

I heard Mrs. Driscol knocking on a door so I silently went up the wide curving stairs to the second floor. I peeked around the corner to see Amy going in to Tuckers room so I hurriedly moved so my back was on the door jamb. I peeked inside, Tucker was sitting on his bed holding that photo we had found. I had forgotten we had searched his room and had left it quite a mess because we had been interrupted by his return. I leaned back so I could listen,

Mrs. Driscol said quietly,

“John? Umm some, well we were worried about you and thought maybe we could figure out what was going on.”

He didn’t look up but his voice was angry, “So you ransacked my room? No one thought of, I don’t know, asking me?”

I could hear her taking a few steps and I hoped it was towards the door.

“You weren’t here and you haven’t been sleeping.”

He snapped back angrily “I have been tracking the damn humming circles haven’t I?”

Her answer sounded sad, ashamed even, “John, we didn’t know that, your behavior was strange, we were only trying to help.”

“Don’t touch me” he said.

I heard the bed creak as he rose and took a couple of steps, I feared for Amy Driscol but she didn’t move away instead she asked

“John, what about your pills?”

There was a pause then “How did you? Oh right, right you found the bottle. While it is none of anyone’s business but I ran out of Prozac, big deal, just so happens I raided a drug store while I was out so you all can sleep soundly again.”

She started to speak again but only got “John, please…” out before he snapped at her

“My name is Tucker! No one calls me John, not anymore.”

“Well, you name is John Tucker and I am your friend and I would like to call you John.” She said.

I felt bile rise in my throat.

“I don’t think that is a good idea Mrs. Driscol.”

“Amy, my name is Amy and yours is John.” She countered.

“I would be more comfortable if you would stay...” he began.

“Away? At a distance? My God what did she do to you?” she asked pointedly.

There was a pause, then he spoke quietly “She didn’t do anything, I was, well, too much. I loved her so much, I smothered her, I was jealous and we couldn’t communicate very well. She just wanted a life and I wanted her. So you see she didn’t do anything.”

The old man sounded tired, ashamed, worn out, I almost believed it.

“Do you still feel like that?” she asked. He took a deep breath then said

“No, I care for her, she was the mother of my children but she has moved on; we have not spoken or seen each other since the day she said she asked for a divorce. So no, I don’t feel that way anymore. I can’t feel that way ever again, it would kill me.”

Again there was silence but when next Mrs. Driscol spoke she sounded angry;

“So we can’t be friends because you are afraid is that it? Too scared your widdle heart will get broken? So you keep everyone at arm’s length? Fine, if that’s how you feel, keep on feeling sorry for yourself and waiting for death. That’s why you are so brave when it comes to the monsters isn’t it? You don’t care if you die. You don’t even care that we count on you. You! You John Tucker are a coward.”

I heard a loud popping slap, fearfully I peeked around and was relieved to see it was Tucker’s face that had a bright red hand print. I barely pulled myself back as Mrs. Driscol spun towards the door. I pretended I was just walking down the hall as she brushed past me, tears appearing on her face,

“Wait, please, Mrs. Driscol wait!” Tucker said.

He reached the door but he stopped when he saw me.

“Hey Tucker! Everything okay?” I asked cheerfully.

He turned, went inside and as he slowly shut the door he said

“You should know John, you’ve been listening at the door the whole time.”

The door quietly clicked into place.

Neither of them appeared at dinner but that was okay, Tucker had been taken down a peg and that was a good thing as far as I am concerned. I certainly slept well that night.