We turned down another street. The park had obviously started its show early tonight; we could already hear the shouts and hollering even from a good distance away.
“You two are the calm ones. I can’t tell anymore…I wasn’t sure…I didn’t know how to feel about this place. It’s safe. There’s no undead running around. If you were happy…” Tony shrugged. “But if you two feel like it’s fucked up, well, maybe we can do something about it now.”
“He has cameras in the bathroom,” I said. “That does seem pretty fucked up.”
“If it makes you feel better, I don’t think he’s got any interest in you, uh, that way,” he said. “He’s watching us because he wants to know what’s going on in Elderwood. Because he doesn’t trust me.”
“Of course he doesn’t trust you,” Dax said. “I don’t trust you.”
“I’m aware. He also thinks the Elderwood Militia is a big deal. It’s about the last card I have. He has no way of knowing Hammond isn’t about to show up with everyone to come get us.”
That meant Gloria and Vijay were probably safe for the time being, too.
Cheers and whistling indicated we were coming up on the park. We were still plodding along, our footfalls sending up tiny plumes of ash.
I didn’t want to see it. Why did I even ask to come out here?
“Have you tried to get him to talk to Elderwood?” I asked.
“I asked once. He said they weren’t answering. I didn’t push it…and I don’t know if he’s lying, or if he just never fixed the radio, or what. If your friend Alyssa is right, he just doesn’t want to talk to anyone out there.”
Dax stuffed his hands into the front pocket of his oversized sweatshirt. “Then what are we supposed to do? If the radio’s busted or under guard, and our phones don’t work…”
Here’s your moment, Vibeke
“Alyssa thought there was a backup radio,” I said.
“Of course she did,” Dax muttered.
Tony just sighed.
The bright lights of the park rounded into view, and it took us a couple minutes to wind our way through the outfield and come to our customary spot beneath the back row of bleachers. The stands were pretty full tonight, but we still had a good view of what was going on. Steel clanged against steel: two women fighting this time, instead of the men. I thought there might be a couple thousand people in the stands watching them fight.
“No fun,” Tony said. “They’re wearing too much clothing.”
That part stuck out to me as well. With everything else that had gone on, I was kind of expecting chain metal bikinis, or at least some mud or something. But these ladies were fully clothed in jeans and thermal shirts, and wore arm and leg armor, as well as neck guards.
Neck guards! That’s something we hadn’t seen much, despite the seeming abundance of neck biting. I fully approved of these women.
“Winner fights the zombie?” I asked.
Tony nodded.
“You never told us how this little show got started,” Dax said.
“From what I can tell, it began as some effort to train people to fight the dead. At least, that may have been what Durkee intended. People watched it and liked it. Somehow it morphed into this.” Tony gestured to the lady-fighters, who, I might add, were considerably more skilled than the men I’d seen duking it out prior. They must have either had actual sword training before the apocalypse, or they’d acquired some in a hurry when things went down. “Now it’s a sporting event. It keeps the people happy, I guess.”
One girl got the other in the jaw, and knocked her down.
The one on the ground flung up a hand. The crowd booed.
“Now she dies,” I said.
“Nah. She’s pretty good. They’ll let her up.”
Well, that was a happy thought. So Keller wasn’t so bonkers he was throwing away living fighters left and right.
“Where does Alyssa think this radio is?” Tony asked, his gaze still glued on the fighters. The loser got up, bowed to a smattering of applause, and trotted off the field to safety.
She’d done better in there than I would have.
The crowd howled. A few seconds later I saw why: a revenant had come stumbling out of the dugout. Another slow mover, but this one had sharp, shiny objects attached to its hands. Blades of some sort, I assumed, tied to its clenching fists with lengths of rope.
“Oh, fuck me,” Dax growled. “They’re arming them?”
Revenants with weapons. Camp Elderwood would collectively shit itself if it could see this.
The victorious fighter danced around the ghoul, seemingly unconcerned. Still riding high off the adrenaline of her victory, perhaps.
“She said it was by the old library. I don’t know where that is.”
The zombie lunged for the girl. She caught one of its blades on the edge of her sword and thrust upward. The motion knocked the ghoul off-balance, though it didn’t seem otherwise harmed.
“That’s in the Quarantine Zone.”
Well, that was just our luck.
“And how were you planning to get us in, Vibby?” Tony turned to me. “You’ve got a plan, yeah?”