“That sounds smart.”
“I never said Charlie wasn’t smart. He’s very smart, but he’s also very twisted and dangerous, and his motives are not exactly admirable. He also does a lot of bulk work—cleaning out small towns and such for the traders. That doesn’t make the people in town happy, because it confuses the issue of identification when you wipe out a whole town of zoms, but salvaging for stuff is more important. We’ve become an agricultural society. No one’s made much of an effort to restart industry, and people seem to think that we can salvage forever for almost everything we need. It’s like in the old days, when people drilled for oil for cars and factories without making much of an effort to find renewable sources for energy. It’s a pillage-and-plunder mentality, and it makes us scavengers. That’s not the best place to be on the food chain. Charlie’s happy with it, though, because a cleanup job is big money.” He looked back over his shoulder in the direction they’d come. “The Children, on the other hand … They may be crazy and they may be misguided, but they do what they believe is the right thing.”
“How do they round up zoms? Especially in a town full of them?”
“They wear carpet coats, and they know the tricks of moving quietly and using cadaverine to mask their living smells. Sometimes one or another of the Children will come to town to buy some, but more often guys like me bring some out to them.”
“Don’t they ever get attacked?”
Tom nodded. “All the time, sad to say. I know of at least fifty dead in this part of the country who used to be Children. I’d quiet them, but Brother David won’t let me. And I’ve even heard stories that some of the Children give themselves to the dead.”
Benny stared at him. “Why?”
“Brother David says that some of the Children believe that the dead are the meek who were meant to inherit the earth, and that all things under heaven are there to sustain them. They think that allowing the dead to feed on them is fulfilling God’s will.”
“That’s stupid,” Benny said.
“It is what it is. I think a lot of the Children are people who didn’t survive the Fall. Oh, sure, their bodies did, but I think some fundamental part of them was broken by what happened. I was there, I can relate.”
“You’re not crazy.”
“I have my moments, kiddo, believe me.”
Benny gave him a strange look. Then he smiled. “I think that redheaded woman, Sister Sarah, has the hots for you. As disgusting a concept as that seems.”
Tom shook his head. “Too young for me. Though … I thought she looked a bit like Nix. What do you think?”
“I think you should shove that right up your—”
And that’s when they heard the gunshots.
10
WHEN THE FIRST SHOT CRACKED THROUGH THE AIR, BENNY DROPPED to a crouch, but Tom stood straight and looked away to the northeast. When Tom heard the second shot, he turned his head slightly more to the north.
“Handgun,” he said. “Heavy caliber. Three miles.”
Benny looked up at him through the arms he’d wrapped over his head. “Bullets can go three miles, can’t they?”
“Not usually,” said Tom. “Even so, they aren’t shooting at us.”
Benny straightened cautiously. “You can tell? How?”
“Echoes,” he said. “Those bullets didn’t travel far. They’re shooting at something close and hitting it.”
“Um … it’s cool that you know that. A little freaky, but cool.”
“Yeah, this whole thing is about me showing you how cool I am.”
“Oh. Sarcasm,” said Benny dryly. “I get it.”
“Shut up,” replied Tom with a grin.
“No, you shut up.”
They smiled at each other for the first time all day.
“C’mon,” said Tom, “let’s go see what they’re shooting at.” He set off in the direction of the gunshot echoes.