Knight of the Dead (Bok 2): Cavalry Page 2

  She lowered to her mother who was kissing her son's forehead.

  “I don't think they see him in that costume.”

  “Costume? No sweetie, it's armor. Real armor.”

  “Armor?”

  “Yes, like a knight.”

  “He's a knight?”

  “He's helping us, okay?”

  “I know,” the girl smiled, the first hopeful smile since this all began.

  “How many are there?” her brother asked.

  “Shh... it's okay Carl. He knows what he's doing. Just let him take care of it.”

  “I miss daddy,” the boy said, muffling his face into his mother's arms.

  “I know. I miss him to. He did this for us, okay? Remember that?” his mother said, barely.

  “Is this man a nice man?”

  “He's protecting us Maggy. He must be nice.”

  “He is a father.”

  “What?”

  “He is a father. I saw his eyes. He has the same eyes as daddy,” Maggy said.

  Her mother looked at her, and gave her the eyes of a mother, and kissed her.

  The steel giant suddenly lurched. They didn't realize as they were whispering that the moaning was slowly descending upon them. And as it got near, the giant reacted. The movement was further away from the windows, but the brutal gashing sounds were as loud as ever. The zombies growled and converged only to be silenced one after the other, until there were none left.

  Maggy, Carl and mom breathed quietly and waited. The car door suddenly creaked open.

  “Come out. Hurry.” It was a booming voice hissing through the steel of the helm.

  The mother suddenly bounced up and scooted herself and her son and daughter out of the car. They stared up at the giant knight.

  “Thank you!”

  “Quiet.” He turned and motioned with his steel fist to a tied blanket on his belt. “Untie and take the blanket. Cover yourself. There is a hole to see from. Hurry.”

  The mother tried to focus on what his gigantic mauled fist was motioning too. The sudden flurry of imagery made it difficult for her to see; from the many severed body parts to the foul stench, and the many layered and sectional armor pieces of a giant man, she blinked and quivered. Maggy stepped over severed limbs and stood just under the steel giant and began to untie the string. The mother focused and stepped closer, holding her son.

  The steel giant stood waiting, stepping to one side. The mother looked up as the man stepped in front to block them from more zombies coming up the street. She gasped.

  The daughter got it untied and unraveled the meager blanket.

  “Cover yourself with it. Slowly. All of you and stand still.”

  Maggy gave one corner to her mother. Both awkwardly pulled it over themselves. They found the small hole to view from. The mother took charge of it while the daughter hugged her.

  The man fumbled with something else inside a loose bag on his belt. He pulled something out with his gauntlet hand and shook it, then turned to them. It's a spray of some kind. The mom backed away from the hole as she saw him spray them.

  “They can smell. This will help.” He shoved it back into the bag.

  She held a cough.

  “Okay, follow me. Watch your step. Look down, slowly... very slowly... follow me.”

  The mother rubbed her eyes, peered through the hole and could see him steadily walk up the street.

  “Step over the parts, walk slowly. No fast moves.” He spoke softly as he looked down through his helmet at the ground, stepping over body parts.

  The mother stopped and put Carl down. He wanted to be held. He was only four. “Carl, I'm too tired. You have to walk.”

  “No... no...”

  “Quiet boy,” the giant stepped closer and whispered into the blanket. “Do what your mother says.”

  Carl stood quietly.

  “The body parts are gross. So what. Just step over them. Let's go.”

  Carl nodded under the blanket. He was unable to see the giant man but feared his monotone dad voice. The mother looked down at her son and daughter, all shrouded in the blanket. Below them was blood splattered asphalt and severed heads.

  They traversed slowly. The mother pinched the blanket to keep the hole where she could see out. She looked through the hole to follow then down at the ground with her kids for traversing. It was slow and tedious but hopeful.

  The man stopped them every once in awhile and quietly shushed them. Maggy quietly whispered to Carl, “He's got this.”

  Carl closed his eyes and nodded.

  The mother gasped but restrained her emotions. There were several growls and snorts nearing, then again, that sudden movement. Maggy looked at Carl; they looked at each other knowing. The movements were so swift and so powerful. Maggy couldn't help but smile and Carl looked at her odd. That odd look was powerful, for it was a release from fear and into another possibility, any other possibility than the panic they had lived in.

  The growls were gone and all that was left was the powerful metal of a man in armor with sword.

  “Don't be afraid. Follow me.”

  2. Return

  Charlotte was praying over the memorial of her school friends. There was a mound of clothes in an area just off the courtyard, but not in view of the streets. The area had several trailer buildings parked as class units. Her dad picked the area for the memorial, as it was far enough away from the main courtyard and hidden enough so that they could place the folded clothes there.

  Charlotte recognized two sets of clothes. One was a boy that was annoying. He had bad parents who dropped him off early. The other was a girl whose mother worked there. She was nice but dorky. There may have been others she knew but the clothes were all tattered. Charlotte didn't feel like examining them closely.

  She didn't want to think about how they suffered as she knew they were now in the arms of God. He did take them! Their bodies were never found. He must have. She remembered a lesson, where Jesus said that children belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. Did they have time to know about Jesus? She regrets not talking to her friends about him. School was always just fun and games, playing at recess. She never thought about telling them about Jesus. She closed her eyes and asked God to forgive her.

  There were still some bodies to burn, adult bodies. Dad used their dried clothes as kindle to get the fire going. Many were long dead and blazed quickly. Dad found bags of shredded paper to make sure the rest burned.

  Charlotte cried when Dad began the fire. Lena and her mom held her. They did a service, to pray over them.

  The pile was now a large sticky ash mound. Charlotte prayed over it again. She picked up her makeshift spear and went back to the main courtyard. Lena and Lisa were practicing weapon fighting. They were doing drills on the small trees. They had broom poles with cheap kitchen knives heavily wrapped. Fortunately, they still had their armor and swords. It looked as if they were back in a high school basketball workout regimen. Both had serious dispositions.

  “Charlotte, work out with us.”

  “In a minute. I want to see if I can spot Dad.”

  “Okay, let us know when he's coming back.”

  “How? I can't yell or wave, might alert zombies.”

  “Hmm...” Lena noticed a rubber ball. “Drop this from the roof.” Lena gave it to her.

  Charlotte stuck it in a handy school bag and took it with her.

  “We’ll see it bouncing down here.”

  She headed through some doors and through the empty cafeteria with fold-down tables. She had to hustle down the corridor to the main large stairwell. At the mid-level landing, there was a bathroom that the teachers used. As she ascended, she could see a classroom door that was open where her mom was working. She had setup the room as her armor shop. It had good sunlight coming through cloudy windows. Charlotte saw her mom moving tables around and stacking boxes of materials she collected. Most of it was lost-and-found clothes and backpacks. Mom was sorting through it.

  Charl
otte entered the opposite classroom and climbed out a window that led to the roof of the auditorium. She then scaled up a metal ladder that led up to the main building's roofing. It was all very easy and neat, like castle walls. She stayed low, shuffling along the crinkly roofing material. She had a tarp set up with some classroom pillows. She sat there and could see all the sides around the school perimeter.

  She immediately saw movement coming from the north or front side of the school. Dad came with some people covered in a tattered blanket. They looked small. She peered at them down her spear she held like a rifle. She traced behind them to some meandering zombies that were following after them. The zombies were excited but their approach was not very focused. Dad's movements were slow. The zombies felt something was amiss, but they couldn't pinpoint it.

  Dad was bringing them to the school's parking lot entrance way on the other side. He was leading them slowly. Charlotte could see Dad waited till the zombies weren't really looking their way, then moved them a bit at a time. He got them around a school bus that blocked the view and moved them a bit quicker. They had gone alongside the school's front side. She knew where they were going. She headed back but then remembered the ball. She pulled it out and threw it gently the opposite way. It bounced along and off the roof. She shrugged not knowing if they saw it or not.

  She easily got back in the school, then ran down the wide stairs to the first floor and back around to the auditorium side then outside, along a walkway, down some exterior stairs, to a pathway, then around the corner to the back of the auditorium building. She stopped short, keeping hidden in the bushes but easily able to see the parking lot gate.

  From her vantage point, she saw Dad walk steadily along the perimeter of the lot. He looked like a giant robot with a strange little dirty ghost following behind. Charlotte got a thrill of playfulness at the sight. She smirked it off and scanned the street in front of her. Just down to her left was the burnt out shell of her home. In front of her were still a few houses and plenty of cars. A zombie could have wandered into the area. She looked about but didn't see anything.

  Dad reached the gate as the small blanketed group followed along. It looked like a mom to Charlotte, a small lady and kids. The lady had lifted up the blanket enough for one hand to guide her along the fencing. Her children constantly skipped and stepped on each other but kept close to the mom. She looked back through the hole that Charlotte's mom cut in the blanket. She was obviously getting anxious to know where Dad was leading her.

  “She better not talk,” Charlotte whispered to herself.

  “Excuse me, where are we going?”

  The giant man stopped and stood still. The mom froze leaning against the big fence, looking through the hole of the blanket. She gulped.

  He turned and faced the gate. “Be quiet. We're here.”

  She saw the massive school. It felt like a fortress now. Her daughter had gone there for kindergarten but they had moved her to a charter school nestled up in the Hollywood Hills after that. The man opened a loose lock and motioned for them to enter. She guided the kids through the gate and suddenly emotions took over. She nearly dropped as the man locked the gate. They were in the teacher's parking lot.

  He turned and grabbed her collapsing form. “Not yet. We are still not safe.”

  She shook as he grabbed her arm through the blanket. She held the blanket up with her other arm. The kids were nearly exposed as she lurched forward. They shuffled and clung to stay hidden. Dad led them to the inner gate, the entrance to the schoolyard from the parking lot. He opened that lock and guided them inside. He locked it and gently pushed them forward. Zombies meandered outside the gate trying to fixate on something.

  They were now between a classroom shed and the auditorium, in a somewhat hidden walkway. Dad pulled off the blanket. The mom looked quickly about and then kneeled down to her children and hugged them. They hugged her and begin to cry.

  “We're safe now. We're safe.”

  They cried in that small space. Charlotte stood up from the bushes. Maggy immediately spotted Charlotte. She saw her fitted with armor and holding a spear. The mom saw her gaze and followed it. She saw Charlotte too.

  “Hullo?”

  Charlotte waved but glared oddly at them. Dad lifted his visor to say something but Lena and Lisa came around the corner. They were about to shout something but remembered silence. However, their jog echoed along the asphalt a bit loud.

  The mom turned to see them all. She couldn't help but smile through her tears, wiping them off her and her children. She stood up holding her son. “Thank you.”

  The Dad tried a quick smile. “Sorry about the man, your husband?”

  She nodded as a flash of anger and sorrow passed her face.

  “Hi, I'm Lena and this is Lisa,” Lena whispered, showing them how to speak. “That's Charlotte, my little sister.” Lena pointed to Charlotte.

  The mom and Maggy looked. The mom gave Maggy a smile to go socialize but Maggy was not in the mood.

  “And you already met my Dad.” Lena motioned to the steel giant.

  Lena gave an odd slight chuckle. The mom couldn't help but respond with a coarse chuckle of her own.

  “Where's mom?” Dad asked.

  “She's upstairs,” Charlotte said.

  “Okay, let's go up there. Let mom... sort this out.” Dad strutted in armor up the exterior stairs to the school's side entrance.

  “Dad isn't much for socializing,” Lena whispered to the mom as she and Lisa helped them.

  The mom nodded in relief and gratitude. She suddenly got dizzy and tripped. Lena and Lisa used their youthful strength to catch her. Lisa had to take her son, who grumbled and pulled away.

  Dad turned. “Hey.” He stared at the boy who silenced himself.

  “It's okay. What's your name?” Lisa asked.

  Lena lifted up the mom, steadying her. “He's Carl.” The mom breathed and held onto Lena. “Oh, I'm okay. Just tired and...”

  “It's okay. We got lots of room and food. You want some water?” Lena glanced at Charlotte who knew what to do. She headed inside.

  “Hey, what's your name?” Lena asked the little girl.

  “Her name is Maggy,” the mom exhaled.

  “Maggy, go with Charlotte, to get some water and food, okay?”

  Maggy nodded.

  “Hey Carl, you want to get some food? Some apple sauce?” Lisa asked. Carl nodded, glancing nervously at his mom, at Lisa, at the giant in steel.

  Dad smiled but it looked like a grimace. His open helm showed his face but it was scrunched in the steel, the padding and the neck chain mail. So he looked like he was grimacing no matter what expression he had.

  Lisa carried Carl and followed behind Maggy and Charlotte as they went to the cafeteria. Dad got up another set of stairs past the teacher's bathroom and up to his wife in the classroom she had set up as her workroom.

  “Hey Dad?”

  Dad stopped midway.

  “I'm gonna get her some water first.”

  “Sure, sure,” Dad continued.

  “What? Why didn't you tell me?”

  “I just did.”

  His wife exited her workroom and hustled down the stairs. At a bench, she saw the mom shaking and held by Lena in the school corridor. “Oh, oh. Get her some water and food.”

  “We are. Charlotte is getting it.”

  Mom sat with them at the bench. She looked at Lena with tearful eyes. The other mom was silent, dazed.

  Charlotte came back with water bottles and school lunch packages.

  The mom ate and drank: each bite, each sip, a flourish of relief. Lena tried to ask questions, but Mom stopped her. Lena informed Mom that there were three. They get out of the new mom her name, Elizabeth, or Beth. Mom suggested to Lena and Charlotte to go back to see how the kids were doing.

  Beth finally focused her eyes on Mom. They stared at each other for awhile. Mom gently rubbed Beth's arm. Neither spoke but shared their fears and loss. Mom already knew Beth los
t her husband. Without words, she saw it in her eyes. Beth was regaining strength from the food and water, enough to reveal the depth of her emotions. They finally hugged for a long time and Beth cried a long sorrowful wail.

  Dad could hear it from above as he took off his armor. He took each piece off, laying them across a teacher's desk and a table. He pulled out a wet wipe and wiped all his parts. Then he wiped down the steel armor.

  “Thank you.”

  “You're welcome. We're trying to save others. My husband knows how to fight them. It was his hobby, fighting in armor with swords.”

  “I, I don't even know his name?” Beth realized.

  “He's Ronan, but we call him Dad...” his wife said, smiling.

  Beth nodded, unsure what to say.

  His wife continued, “Before all of this. We lost our home to a fire. My husband did it. He made the fire to burn out all those people, those things.”

  “We saw the fire.”

  “Yes, it must have been big. We were in our small basement. I didn't think we were going to make it. My daughter, Charlotte, she was bitten.”

  “She?” Beth sat up, remembering that her children were with her.

  “No, no, it's okay. That was awhile ago. She didn't change.”

  Beth blinked, wide eyed. “Don't we change? When we get infected?”

  “Well we thought. But she prayed. We prayed. To Jesus. And he saved her.”

  Beth leaned back against the wall, looking at Mom. The look was one of sudden uncertainty.

  “We are Christian. Our savior is Jesus Christ.”

  Beth nodded, keeping an emotionless visage.

  “You don't have to. It's okay. We're going to help whoever we can.”

  It took a moment but finally, Beth shrugged. “Thank you.”

  The emotional connection of suffering had now turned to a tension of timidity. Thankfully, the children came round the corner. Carl had his apple sauce and little plastic spoon. Maggy was eating a bag of cheesy gold fish snacks and held a carton of apple juice. Charlotte, Lisa and Lena followed behind with a skip to their walk.

  Carl sat on his mom's lap. She loved the breaking of tension and chuckled. She released a breathe of air through a facade of heated emotions. “Hey, what you got there?”