Dead Chaos - Book 1 - Zombie Apocalypse

Dead Chaos - Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

The Eden residents had either fenced, or barricaded in the area surrounding the hot springs and lodge directly across the street. It made a nice setting for the hedonistic community. Not that a majority of them weren’t nice people, but sometimes they got a little too friendly. When I was seventeen I’d visited with dad and Viktor to trade supplies and had never felt more uncomfortable in my life.

The guards at the front gate had worn tie-dyed shirts, beads and moccasins. It seemed they were unarmed except for a single hunting bow between them. They’d made us relinquish our weapons at the gate and I remembered thinking that if I were a bandit, this would be the place I’d attack. One of the guards had led us through a barbed wire overpass that crossed Intersate 70. We’d passed dozens of naked residents wading in the warm sulfur pools, some of them participating in less than wholesome acts. It was at that point they’d made me close my eyes for much of the duration of the stay.

We were on our way out, and I’d finally felt safe from moral corruption, when a fifty-something couple caught up to us. Her name was Sunshine and his was Coyote. She’d gotten a little handsy with Viktor and my dad, which had been oddly both creepy and amusing.

Meanwhile, Coyote had smiled at me in an assessing manner and told my dad, “Gee, this little plum is almost ripe!”

This was one of the few times I’d seen my dad so quick to violence. He’d decked the audacious hippie and kicked him twice before his gentler self prevailed. I hadn’t been allowed back since. No loss there.

Kyle shifting brought me back to the current situation just as we entered the mountain valley in early afternoon. We parked our cars right at the front gate. The entrance to Eden seemed better barricaded than before and there were signs that read GO AWAY and IF YOU CAN READ THIS, YOU’RE IN RANGE. It seemed Eden wasn’t so pure any more. This time the guards actually looked menacing. They wore assault rifles and carried themselves like trained soldiers.

One of them called down at us from his post, “What’s your business here?”

Apparently they weren’t all that smart, however, considering Justin and Alexi were on either side of Kyle, clearly helping to support him. I thought maybe the blood soaked bandages might’ve been another giveaway.

“We need your doctor’s services. One of us has been shot!” I yelled back, running short on patience.

“Nothing is free. Do you have supplies to trade?” barked the soldier.

“We do!” answered my father before I could retort.

The gates swung open and four guards descended on us, weapons raised as if they were expecting us to jump them. I found myself wanting the tie-dyed archers back. We were told to give up our guns and patted down. The guard doing so must have seen me as less of a threat because he missed the pocket pistol in my boot. I wasn’t giving up the gun unless I had to.

From the restaurant to our right came a little hippie with a wheelbarrow. I thought I recognized him as being on gate duty four years ago, but perhaps he’d been demoted from guard to gopher. “Hi there, folks, the name’s Catfish, you can set the wounded in here,” he cheerily stated.

The boys gingerly set Kyle down in the homemade gurney and we followed as he was wheeled across the street toward the hot springs. A silent guard escorted us, walking a few paces behind our group. Marijuana smoke and sulfur increasingly filled my nostrils as we neared the lodge. Clearly the residents of Eden hadn’t lost all their principles. We entered the pool area and a familiar sight met us. Viktor pounced and was blocking Riley’s view before she could see any scandalous behavior.