End of the Line (19 page)

             
“And you wouldn’t let me in?” Dot said.

             
“She may not do a lot,” I said, “but she keeps us safe.”

             
“Pointless if she don’t work.”

             
“I hate that stuck up bitch,” Jake said.
             

             
“She isn’t so bad,” I said, wondering why I was defending her. Jake didn’t like her because she wouldn’t sleep with him.

             
“She doesn’t want to deal with us peasants.”

             
“She’s been there when we needed it.”

“She wasn’t for Mindy.”

             
Princess couldn’t have saved her, but I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t condone her behavior, but I had pieces of her story. She was spoiled rotten, but she loved her family, especially her father and older brother Joe. When I did her hair, she’d tell me how wonderful Joe was. How he might have been president someday.

             
She also let it slip that she killed him and her father. When she talked about them, especially her father, I could tell he was her god, everything she wanted a man to be.
             

             
I’m sorry these people had such bad taste in liquor; I would have loved to give her an expensive bottle of wine. I know she drowns her sorrows in booze and pain killers, I figured she might as well do it with good stuff. I don’t think a lot of people realized Princess was still rather young, Tanya also. It’s ironic that both women were around the same age and fundamentally so different.

             
I didn’t say anything more but instead moved through another door. This one led to a gigantic kitchen. Cam would have loved it.

             
Annemarie was going through the shelves. The kitchen smelled like rotting fruit, and decay, but there was no sign of bugs as the fruit was probably dust.

             
“Anything good?”

             
“Enough that we can save the food in the truck.” Canned food adorned the kitchen table. I went over and looked through it, some sardines, a jar of olives, peanut butter, cans of pears, peas, and lima beans.

             
“What I wouldn’t do for some bread.”  The CostKing bread had long been eaten or gone stale. We kept some in the freezer which Rachel allowed us to share a loaf a month. We were stuck with crackers and melba toast. I never want to eat another slice of melba toast again.

             
“How about this?” she said and threw a box of crackers on the table.

             
I shrugged, “Close enough.” At least it wasn’t melba toast.

             
“We even got food for Chinakitty,” she said. She put the cans on the table instead of throwing them. I looked over the labels and discovered it was tuna.
             

             
“I rather eat this.” We had a few cans of cat food from Aisha’s house. “And you better grab a bedroom before you end up on the couch.”

             
“Jake will nab us a room.”

             
“So you guys together again?”

             
“No, it’s just sex.”

             
“What about Harlan?”

             
“He’s sweet and all. He’s teaching me to shoot, but ever since Mindy died, I’m starting to understand how Jake sees relationships—Mindy was my best friend. She was someone I needed to help me through all this and now she’s gone. I don’t need to get close to anyone.”

             
“So no jealousy?”

             
“Nope. I know he’s doing it with Tanya and any other female he can find.”
             

             
“I’m sure he’ll do it with Dot if he could.”

             
Annemarie laughed. “The man has to have some standards.”

Chapter 12

             
The empty house gave no clue to the whereabouts of the family. Even though they had six bedrooms, only four had beds and one had a crib. Tanya took the master suite and shared it with Aisha. Dave took the next biggest bedroom, the boy’s, and Jake and Annemarie ended up in what I thought was the guest room because it was non-descript. I ended up in a small top bunk of a kid’s room. The walls were littered with Twilight posters, so I must have the girl’s room. Ashley found a home office with a couch and gym on the third and took that. I don’t know where Dot went and didn’t care. I had a grand dinner of sardines, raisins, olives, and peanut butter on stale crackers. I got food all over the floor. I’m sure mom would kill me. I thought about my parents in Ohio, in a gay bashing town I fled as soon as I could. I wondered if they were still alive.

             
After dinner, I lit a candle and headed up to the darkened attic.

             
“Ashley,” I said. I shinned the light in the room, but the couch was empty.

             
No response. “Ashley,” I said again.

             
“In here.”

             
I followed her voice passed the office and the home gym into a third room. I couldn’t see what it was. Ashley had a single candle as well, but I only saw her outline.

             
“A playroom,” she said.

             
“Yes, they had three kids.”

             
“You think they’re dead?”

             
“I don’t know. I see no evidence they are.”

             
“We won’t ever know, will we?”

             
“Ashley, you aren’t going to kill yourself?” I worried about her sitting her alone in the dark.

             
“Why? Jim? Are you worried?”

             
“A little, yes.”

             
“My baby is dead and my son probably is too but I’m not going to off myself until I can find out if I should.”

             
I was confused. “What do you mean?”

             
“I’m going to California to find my son.”
             
             

             
I absorbed the information, then realized with fear that Ashley planned to cross a country where society had collapsed and zombies were at the top of the food chain.

             
“Ashley, it’s insane out there. How can you possibly think you can make it?”

             
“I should have tried with Katie. I should have gotten to her. Why did I listen to Abe? I should have gone when I had the chance.”

             
“You couldn’t have saved her,” I pleaded. “The flu had no cure.”

             
“Then I should have been with her. I owe it to myself to find Martin and my grandkids. I need to know if they are still alive. Otherwise there’s nothing for me. Don’t talk me out of it. I know you’re good at that. I’ll walk there if I have to.”

             
“You barely know how to drive. Maybe when we get back to CostKing we can plan a safe route for you.”

             
Ashley didn’t respond. In the dark, I couldn’t tell if she was convinced.

             
“Ashley, I won’t stop you from finding your son but don’t be foolish in planning.”

             
“I’m almost 60. I have arthritis. I might live for another 20 years but not without major medical care. I gotta do it before I can’t. I probably won’t make it, but I need to try.”

             
“You promise to wait a little longer?” I asked. “So I can plan something.”

             
“I’ll think about it,” she said, then yawned. “I’m tired. I’ll talk to you in the morning.” I didn’t believe it but I got up to leave.

             
I went back to the microscopic bed. Before I jumped in, I ripped the poster of Robert Patterson off the wall. I tore apart the room. An expensive PC fell to the floor. I ripped clothes out of the closet. I could barely see anything over the dim of the lantern in my room. I knew I shouldn’t mess things up. The family could come back, but who was I kidding. They were either dead or on the run like the rest of the human race. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t going to stop a 57 year old woman from going cross country.

             
I might well have let her kill herself.

             
I stopped when I heard a tapping on the door. I opened it found Tanya standing outside.

             
“Doing some redecorating?”

             
“Ashley wants to go to California.” I opened the door and let her come in. She sat on the chair by the kid’s desk and ignored the mess.

             
“Her son lives out there, right?”

             
“That’s not the point. Going on her own is suicide.”

             
“Probably, but I ain’t gonna stop her.”

             
“She seems determined, but it’s still wrong.” I felt flustered.

             
“What can we do to help her survive?”

             
“Kill all the zombies, make her twenty years younger, removed all the smashed up cars, Fix the phones so she can call--”

             
“One thing we can do,” she said interrupting.

             
“What?”

             
“Give her some driving lessons. Can’t be hard, I learned when I was 12. My friends jacked a car.”

             
She was right. We could teach her to drive tomorrow. A few days of lessons might give her a chance.

             
“Dave isn’t going to be happy.”

             
“Since when do you care about Dave?”

             
I ignored her comment. “We’ll have to stay here longer.”

             
“This house seems secure, the family is gone, there’s food in the kitchen, and I haven’t spotted any zombs.”

             
“They’ll come, you know. They always do.”

             
“You think this is a good idea?”

             
“No,” I said, I was in Dave’s room that belonged to the older boy. The walls covered with muscle cars and big breasted girls. “It’s a terrible idea, but she insists on going, with or without help.”

             
“We have to convince her otherwise,” Dave got up and paced the room. “Jim, she’ll listen to you. Talk her out of it.”

             
“She’s not listening to anyone but grief.”

             
“Then you aren’t trying hard enough.”

             
“Come on,” Tanya said. “That ain’t true.”
             

             
“Look at how she’s acting since she found her daughter’s body. If we don’t let her go, she’s going to kill herself or worse.”

             
“You’re a shrink now?”

             
I tried hard not to roll my eyes. “You weren’t in the truck with her. Instead of swallowing a bunch of pills, she wants to die riding off in the sunset.”

             
“And you’re going to help her? You might as well shoot her,” he grumbled.

             
“That isn’t true and you know it. I want to give her a fighting chance by making sure she knows how to drive.”

             
“I can’t be a part of this.”

             
“Then don’t and stay out of it.”

             
Dave looked mad. He wanted things his own way but he wouldn’t take command.

             
“When we get back to CostKing, I’ll let Rachel know what you did.”

             
“Rachel understands that she leads Costking but she’s not our mother. She made me leader of this expedition for a reason.”

             
“Does she know you’re Tanya’s bitch?”

             
“Dave, you’re a fucking ass,” Tanya said.

             
“I’m no one’s bitch,” I said, trying to keep calm. Dave was a dick, I got it and he was trying to get a rise out of me.

             
Dave turned to Tanya. “You wanna get rid of Ashley?”