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What Becomes of the Forgotten American West
Chapter 43: Strangers Things Have Happened

Chapter 43: Strangers Things Have Happened

Ruby clawed out of the rubble. She practically cracked through the giant slabs of shattered highway remains to get back to the daylight. Only ten years old and tough enough to make it in this unforgiving world. It was very rare to see Ruby without a fresh gash on her arm or bruise on her cheek. Her baseball hat was never clean. It would have been too big for her if not for the pigtails. The only link to her past, it was obviously her father’s hat.

The drift of the winds could always tell him where they could be. The smell of the dead was his gift. Echo lost his sight when the outbreak first hit. In fact, it was Project Clean Sweep and radiation blindness from staring directly at a nuclear explosion that cost Echo the use of his eyes. The only way he has been able to survive this long is because he could always smell them coming. Now his dead sense was finely attuned to the point that he can track zombies within a couple of feet. Echo lived true to his name and learnt everything he could about the walking dead. His enhanced sense of smell and diligence in training his other remaining senses opened up an opportunity to learn how to recognize the sounds they made. He was walking radar now.

After all this time, all these miles since Tennessee, Jesse has kept it safe. His family was gone; all the people he knew were dead. The rest of the world rested in shambles, a shadow of itself. He got through the horde when he needed to, besides that he stayed away from them and headed south. When he found a safe place he broke it out of its case. He took out his Gibson Limited and began to play. His feet dangled off the highway overhead exit sign.

“Lord, I was born a ramblin’ man” Jesse sang as he plucked the strings, “Tryin’ to make a livin ‘n’ doin’ the best I can.”

“But when-” Jesse’s attention took him further down the road. He was distracted by a narrow line of zombies collapsing one after another as they approached him. Finally the last of the undead walking just below Jesse was cut in half right through the waist, its guts spilling out everywhere. The incapacitated zombie toppled over to the ground and the little girl standing behind it drove her knife into its forehead. Jesse’s snapped the last string of his guitar in shock.

The guitar was in the case and on his back before what happened to it could really sink in for Jesse, instead he was climbing down the sign to save the little girl. Ruby walked right by Jesse, even after he made it down in time. To his further surprise she was holding a brown grocery bag in her other hand. Ruby wiped the blood off the knife on her jeans and put it away. Jesse couldn’t help but follow her, and Ruby didn’t seem to mind.

Echo knew they were close, but he didn’t need them to get close enough to smell. Jesse had decided about ten miles ago that they were alone on this stretch of the highway and broke out the broken guitar. He refused to let it keep him down, so he stuck to songs that avoided the wrong chords.

“Please put that infernal thing away.”

Jesse jumped back, “You got an old man with you? Is he your grandpa or somethin’?”

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“She’s not going to answer you, son,” Echo informed him, “Hasn’t said but one word since we met on the road.”

“What was the one word, gramps?”

“Ruby.”

Ruby turned around and looked at both of them. She pointed at herself and repeated, “Ruby.”

Jesse walked over to her and got on one knee. He pointed to himself and said, “Jesse.”

Ruby pointed at his chest and smiled. Jesse smiled back at her. Ruby pointed at Jesse and repeated his name out loud. “Jesse.”

Triumphantly, the musician proudly turned back towards Echo.

“Stop smiling at me like an idiot. I’m blind.”

Jesse laughed and got back up ready to rattle off about a hundred questions until Echo jumped. Ruby stopped putting away the groceries and armed herself with two blades.

“What’s this now?” Jesse wondered.

“There is movement coming from the north. I sense at least one infected.”

“You got radar in those giant sunglasses or something?”

“I can smell one of them and now I am starting to hear multiple sets of steps. They are on a direct course for us. “

“We should run. I can lead you out of here.”

“It is of no concern of ours. Ruby will handle it.”

“How can you expect this little girl to do your fighting for you?”

“She’s the one that saved my life.”

The door began to pound as the intruders arrived, but then something strange happened. The bangs were deliberate and rhythmic, they weren’t bangs at all. They were knocks. Jesse went to open the door as Echo tried to stop him. “Are you crazy! They could be anybody!”

Ruby became worried when she saw Echo react negatively. Once again, she held her knives at the ready to tear some people down. The door slid open and there was Samuel along with Rebecca, Atticus, Marcus, Annie, Harold, Malcolm, and Karina.

Jesse and Ruby both looked to Echo. He could feel their gazes and knew what they were for. “What? I thought I smelled the dead coming…”

Samuel walked over while his group barricaded the door behind them, “They are.”