Can't Have Shit in Kentucky (Project Zomboid) ch.13 (Patreon)

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The Buyer said nothing, noting the looks on the Kentuckians. He cleared his throat, getting their focus on him. "I'll leave you all to talk about it. Once you decide on something, just ask any of my guys." He then turned to the Cowboy and nodded. It seemed to be a signal of sorts as he and the armed men moved off, leaving them all to glance at each other. 

"Now what?" Elis asked, looking to the others. To Roy, to Jackie. 

"He wants to fight off an entire state's worth of zombies, to destroy the cause of all this," Roy muttered, rubbing the underside of his chin. 

"He's insane," Samson said flatly. The rather blunt manner he delivered it earned raised looks from the others. Seeing that it was a prompt to elaborate, the large man did so. "Louisville has hundreds of thousands of people living in it alone. He wants to face that?" 

"Except he's not facing the whole state, Samson," Joan reminded her husband gently. "He wants to go and fight that place he's shown us. And looking around, I reckon he has a good chance." She said so confidently, noting the sheer scale of the compound and its amenities. Who knew what sort of surprises he had in store somewhere? 

"No way in hell am I going out there. I don't care if he wants me to clean the floors, I am not fighting those things again," a man muttered, to the assent of others. However, not many agreed with that sentiment. Elis stood up from his chair, face befuddled. 

"And yer just gonna let them zombies destroy Kentucky?" Elis asked, accusingly. Of all the times when they should be arming up to defend their homes from this clearly existential threat. The man met Elis eye for eye, crossing his arms. 

"I already did my part fighting them, boy. I ain't going out to do it again. And besides, I pay my damned taxes. Let the Army handle it," he said dismissively. 

"We saw how the army handled it," Roy spoke up over the din. "They're shooting down planes and bombing towns with the air force." 

"And that's what they ought to be doing. What are some infected folk compared to them A-10's?" the man said confidently. To his surprise, Roy shook his head. 

"The problem here is that the Army is re-acting, not acting. They can drop as much bombs and missiles that they like but that's not going to stop the problem at hand," Roy laid out logically. "The problem here is that secret facility spilling poison into the air. The longer that facility spits out the gas, the worse it will be for all of us. Winds will carry this virus into the East Coast, with millions of people there, or worse, to other countries." 

At that fact, a heavy and dark mood landed among the assembled. Images of burning cities and desperate last stands in New York and Washington, in Rome and Tokyo and other large cities. The achievements of man and modern civilization brought down underneath fire and the snarls of the undead. 

"How could a virus even last that long?" Rachel spoke up, silent through all of this. Her input wasn't particularly needed or sought after during this time. But that fact made her curious enough to ask. "I'm sorry but, as far as I can remember, viruses don't last long or something. Wouldn't the virus in the air die before it could go on to other places?" 

"This whole thing, it doesn't spell normal to me, Miss Rachel," Elis spoke up, looking at the woman. He wasn't even flubbing on his words, which surprised him. "It's turning folk into ravenous bloodthirsty killers. Who knows what sort of black magic or some such is in the virus itself?" 

Jackie grasped what Elis was trying to say. From her seat, she could scarcely imagine what sort of engineering went into the damned thing ruining their lives at the moment. It could have been buffed to the extreme and made resistant to the cold or warmth of countries. 

"This speculation is pointless," Roy said, bringing them all back to the point of the matter. "The thing is, there's this facility that's spilling poison into the air. It's turning people sick and into damned bloody cannibals. It will only be a matter of time until this thing spills over to the other states or God forbid, into other countries. I don't know about you but I am not going to take things to chance. If these folk here need my help in sorting out this issue, I am in." 

"You want to help?" Samson asked, glancing at the elderly man. Roy nodded, sighing. 

"I'm old but I can still fight. I have...grand-kids, in California. I don't want them to go through the same things we did," Roy confessed. Jackie raised an eyebrow at that. She never would have thought that Roy had married or had children. He simply didn't have the air of someone who would settle down. 

"But then, why not let the army handle it? They got the bombs, the planes. We made that dictator Hussein quake. Why not let them do their thing instead of, y'know, trying to be a hero?" the same naysayer pointed out. "So what, y'all just gonna go wear some olive and gasmasks, fight the dead? You saw how those things are. They're fast. Imagine fighting a whole damn town full of them." 

Now that image placed a dampener on the mood again. A whole town's worth of runners against them. But still, Roy shook his head. "I'm sure our hosts here got a plan for action. They wouldn't be so suicidal in starting this and not have means to deal with them zombies." 

"Do what ya'll want," the man said, massaging his head. "I am staying here." 

"Yer choice, buddy," Elis said, disapproving of his fellow Kentuckian. The man however shook his head, crossing his arms. 

"So we got our first volunteers," Roy said, nothing Elis and the other man. "Whoever wants to stay here, raise your hands." 

Arms shot up, their faces ranging from scared, unsure. The naysayer raised his hands faster than the rest, aware of his choice and sticking to it. Roy thought nothing else of it other than the amount of folk that lifted their hands. From their group, Rachel had lifted her hand as well. 

Elis kept his face resolute but inwardly, his regard for the woman took a notch downwards. 

"And people who want to stay and join the Buyer?" He asked, lifting up his hand. Elis lifted his enthusiastically. Why should he not help? Kentucky was in danger, his family was in danger. God in heaven, he still had no idea what happened to his buddy Keith. He had to do something about it and other than joining the Army, the Buyer's army had the best chance and start to make a difference. 

Jackie watched the whole thing play-out. She turned to Rachel who shrugged her shoulders at Elis's quick looks of disapproval. Elis and Roy had their minds set on helping out. Joan and Samson were still undecided about it. 

Now, what was her choice? 

Jacklyn was afraid. And who wouldn't be. The damned zombies weren't those slow types. They were the fast types. God, she would just freeze facing those types of creatures on the battlefield. But...she did not like that image. 

She hated the fact that she froze while the bus fought off those zombies the previous night. She hated that she was next to useless. She had prided herself on being a capable person. She would have gone on to build a life in California instead of relying on the graces of her family. But when the time came when she had to go prove her worth, prove her strength when everyone needed to support each other, she failed. 

Jacky was going to live out her belief in herself. She was sick of being scared. 

Taking a breath, she lifted up her hand. 

From where they were, Roy and Elis grinned. 

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A/N: Updoot time.