CHAPTER 39

It was August 6, three days after the death of Randall Gaines and Barbie Denkins in Emporia, Kansas, about 11:30 in the morning, when Billy Kline pulled the van to the side of the road and put it in park.

“Hey, Ed,” he said over his shoulder. “Ed, you awake?”

In the backseat, Ed pushed the brim of his Stetson up his forehead with his thumb and looked up. He’d been driving most of the night, the group deciding they were so close now it was best to drive on through until they reached the Grasslands, and he felt worn down, tired almost beyond sleep.

“Come here and look at this.”

Ed leaned forward in his seat, expecting to see more of the infected wandering the road. Over the last few days, they’d seen a bunch scattered in the roadside debris of abandoned cars and abandoned tent cities.

But there were no zombies. They were surrounded by green, rolling land all the way to the horizon in every direction. Had been for the last day and a half. Billy pointed up the road and Ed looked that way. He could see metal roofs and wooden structures in the distance, the roofs glistening like pools of motor oil in the sun. Off to one side, outside the camp’s perimeter fence, he could see a pair of yellow earthmovers cutting into the ground.

He opened the side door and climbed out. Billy got out, too. Jeff Stavers and the others pulled up alongside them. Soon, they were all standing in the middle of the road, looking north at the buildings of Jasper Sewell’s village. Up ahead was an old wooden billboard. Whatever it had once advertised was completely effaced now. The white paint was peeling off in large flakes. But in bold, red letters, the paint still fresh, were the words WELCOME TO THE GRASSLANDS. HERE THERE IS PEACE.

“We did it, Ed,” Billy said. “We got here.”

Ed looked at him and smiled. He couldn’t help it. The smile spread across his face and he could barely hold the wind in his lungs. He felt good. They had really made it.

Beside him, Jeff Stavers was shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand. He held Robin’s hand with the other.

“What are you thinking?” she said.

“That it’s real. I think a part of me just didn’t believe that it would be real.”

That was it, Ed thought. He’s put his finger on it.

He took a deep breath and let it out. He closed his eyes and opened them again. The village was still there, its roofs dappled with sunlight.

It was real. Good lord, it was real.

From the top of a mounded earthen dome near the kitchen, Aaron Roberts stood watching the pair of vehicles as they approached the main gate. His gaze drifted to the earthmovers to his right. Zombies had gathered at the perimeter fence during the night and had to be put down. The earthmovers were almost done burying the bodies. On the loudspeakers, Jasper was praising the work they’d all been doing recently.

“We are becoming a self-sufficient island of God’s love,” Jasper said. “We are building the world anew here in the Grasslands, and each of you is a vital part of that rebirth. Each of you matters. People, people, people, don’t you see the wisdom of this? The United States government has abandoned its charge to the people it was formed to protect. The check that Martin Luther King Jr. was so determined to cash has bounced after all. The government has turned its back on you and on me and on God himself. Why, just the other day I was listening to them talking about us. Us, people, you and me. They were talking about us. And do you know what they had to say? They called us communists. They called us deserters. Do you hear those words, people? Do they make you mad? Well, let them call us what they will. Let them say whatever they want to say about us, for you and I know the truth, don’t we? We know we are building this community from solid rock. We have built our house on the best soil, and it will soon feed us the same way God’s love feeds our souls. Bless you all for your hard work. God loves you. I love you. Each and every one of you.”

Well spoken, Aaron thought. He personally had not heard the broadcast Jasper was talking about, but that didn’t matter. If Jasper said it, it was real. And Jasper had said the Family was doing well. Aaron felt proud of that. They’d organized effectively when the zombies appeared, and they’d fought like trained soldiers. Yes, indeed, let the government say what it would. They were taking care of themselves.

Aaron saw a boy of about fourteen coming out of the bakery with an armload of metal sheet pans. He called out to him.

The boy put down the sheet pans and came running.

“Yes, sir?” he said.

“Look there,” Aaron said, and pointed at the vehicles coming down the road. “Go tell Jasper we have some new arrivals.”

“Me?” The boy sounded amazed—and a little frightened.

Aaron ruffled his hair. “Yes, you. Don’t worry, he doesn’t bite. Go on now.”

“Yes, sir.”

The exterior wall surrounding the village was a hurricane fence some fifteen feet high, strung together between large, rectangular cedar posts, like enormously long railroad ties. Ed sat in the passenger seat of the van, watching a group of workers who were repairing a section of the fence, and whistled.

“Looks pretty well fortified,” he said.

“That’s good, right?” Billy said.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He nodded ahead. “Looks like they’re letting us in.”

Billy put the van in gear and they slowly rolled forward. On their right, they saw two large sheds, and next to those, a well house. Farther up the road, they saw a number of buildings. A few looked unfinished, but quite a few were impressively well situated.

“They’ve done a lot in a month,” Billy said.

“Yeah.”

A man in a worn, floppy farmer’s hat stepped into the road and held up a hand in greeting.

“The welcoming committee?” Billy said.

Ed nodded.

The man waved them off to the right, where two rows of vehicles already were. They parked and got out.

“Hello,” the man said. “Welcome to the Grasslands.”

Ed tipped his hat to the man. “I’m Ed Moore,” he said, shaking hands with the man.

“Aaron Roberts,” the man in the farmer’s hat said. “You folks look tired. Have you come a long way?”

“Sarasota, Florida, for me and these folks here,” Ed said, indicating his group. “These folks here we met on the way up. They’re from California.”

Aaron nodded at Jeff Stavers and his group.

“Well, it’s good to have you.”

“Thanks.”

“Ed,” Aaron said, and then stopped himself. “May I call you Ed? We are very informal here.”

“Ed is fine.”

“Wonderful. Ed, I suppose you folks have heard stories about us. And about Jasper Sewell, our leader. That’s why you are here, right?”

“We’ve heard stories, yes. Quite a few, in fact.”

“I heard,” Kyra said, “that he can walk among the infected without them attacking him.”

Ed laughed. “Yeah, that’s the kind of stories I’ve heard, too.”

Aaron nodded. “That particular story is true.”

Ed frowned.

“It’s true. I saw it myself. It happened right in front of our church back in Jackson, Mississippi. Jasper walked right out into a crowd of the infected, scooped up a mother and daughter, and brought them safely inside our church. And he did it as calmly as you or I would order a cheeseburger. Just went out and got ’em.”

Ed nodded dubiously.

“Jasper will be meeting with you shortly,” Aaron said. “He likes to greet all new arrivals personally. Understand, though, please, that we have a quarantine rule here. Before you are allowed to mingle with the rest of the Family, we need to make sure that you are not infected or sick in any way.”

Ed looked at him. “The Family?”

“An affectionate term for our community here. The quarantine is only for a few hours, but I hope you can understand why it’s necessary.”

“Yeah,” Ed said. “Sure.”

There was a commotion from the direction of the buildings and Aaron turned that way.

“Ah,” he said. “Here comes Jasper now.”

Ed and the others followed his gaze up the road. There was a large pavilion just to the left of the main road, the largest building they could see, and a crowd was coming out of it, headed their way. And in the middle of the crowd, in a white suit over a gray shirt and wearing white shoes, was a man with unnaturally dark hair and a square, oddly plastic-looking face. He wore large, round sunglasses that, to Ed, seemed almost comical.

“Good Lord,” Ed said.

Later that evening, just before six, they were released from their quarantine.

“You must be hungry,” Jasper said to them.

“Yes, actually,” said Kyra. “Very much.”

“How very odd,” Jasper said. “There are times when I can hear the West Texas twang in your speech very clearly, and other times I can’t. Why do you suppose that is, child?”

“I…I don’t know. Uh, sir.”

“Jasper, please. Child, call me Jasper.”

Beside her, Colin took her hand. She turned slightly and smiled in his direction.

“Kyra,” Jasper said. “Would you permit me to ask you a personal question?”

“Uh, of course,” she said.

“Have you been blind since birth?”

“No,” she said. “It happened when I was four. I was in a car crash.”

“Ah,” he said. “How very dreadful. I’m so sorry. But tell me, do you enjoy listening to the radio?”

That stopped her. She stopped so suddenly, in fact, that Colin turned and looked at her.

“How did you know that?” she said.

“A hunch,” he said. “Repeat these numbers back to me. 67459089 and 14258463 and 78546338. Can you do that for me?”

Kyra smiled at him. “Of course.” And then she repeated the sequence back to him without hesitation.

Jasper laughed and clapped his hands together.

“Wonderful,” he said. “Exactly as I thought. Child, your ability for recall is impressive, but I bet you can do a lot more than that, can’t you? Your eyes are gone, but your mind compensates in other ways.”

Kyra blushed.

“I…maybe.”

“Of course you can,” he said. He turned to Aaron, who had been walking along behind them, silently observing the tour, and said, “Brother Aaron, I do believe we have found a radio room messenger.”

“A what?” Kyra said.

“Child,” Jasper said. “I think I have just the job for you. Yes, indeed, just the job.”

When the tour was done, they met in the pavilion for dinner. There was a prayer and singing, and Jasper spoke to them over the loudspeaker. Later, they were led through the line where they were served cafeteria style. Billy had a double portion of macaroni and cheese, pot roast, two chocolate milks, and a peach cobbler.

He sat down between Ed and Julie Carnes. Both were eating lightly.

“You’re not hungry?” he asked Ed.

“Not really, no.”

“What’s up?” Billy asked. “You’ve been acting weird since before our tour. Something wrong?”

Ed didn’t answer.

“Ed?”

“Yeah, I’m here. I was just thinking.” He looked around the pavilion, noticing the loudspeakers that carried Jasper’s voice across the village, but it troubled him that he hadn’t seen a single radio or TV or cell phone anywhere in the entire camp.

“Thinking about what?” Billy asked.

Ed let out a breath and slapped Billy on the shoulder. “Nothing,” he said. “My nerves are still a little raw from the road. Enjoy your dinner.”