End of the Line (6 page)

“Bad idea, doc.”

“She can shoot, she can survive. She says she’ll work hard. Leave it be. If you want to be on the council then I’ll let you. In fact it might be a good idea. It will fix the even vote.”

“No—“ he said, “I don’t want criminals in here.” I was glad when he left the infirmary.

Dave in the end was a coward. While he went off that we didn’t need Maddie or now Tanya, he wouldn’t say it to their faces. He also didn’t like to make decisions, only complain about them.

Eli didn’t say a word during the exchange.

“Eli, we can take turns looking after her,” I said. “I know Maddie would like to spend time with her.”

“No,” he said. “I’ll stay here with her until she feels better, I don’t mind.” Eli had a wife and three children, all dead. One must have been a daughter.

I went to Dan.

“Why don’t we go for a walk?”

I took him back to my aisle. 

“Nice,” he said. He took one of the ketchup bottles off the shelf, inspected the label and then put it back. He sat on the bed. Max the cat, a brown and white tabby was sleeping on my pillow. He petted the cat a few times.

“What’s with the cat?”

“We have 6. They control the mice and bugs.”

“Who takes care of them?”

“We all feed them but Maddie or Jim usually does it. There’s plenty of cat food. We also clean the scat and anything they soil. They’re usually good and pee only in one place, the aisle with the litter. So you should stay out of that aisle unless it’s your turn to clean.”

“Good to know—,” then he stood up and tried to kiss me. I pulled away. He looked hurt and confused but backed off.

“Rachel, how did you survive? We came back from our hunting party and they say you were attacked, left the house planning to kill as many zombies as you could. Did they lie?”

“I was bit—“

“But how?”

“No one here knows except for Jim and Maddie,” I took off my sweatshirt and rolled up my sleeve. A round red raised scar appeared as an ugly reminder on my pale skin. I never wore sleeveless shirts. Dan looked at it in amazement. He even touched it. The scar indicated not a light attack either and I could tell you by personal expensive it hurt like fuck.

“Oh shit. We wouldn’t have known.”

“Joel offered to kill me, I opted to go hunting. I got a couple and that night I passed out in a house, so ill and weak, I couldn’t even shoot myself. Last thing I remembered was being pissed off I didn’t finish the job. I woke up the next morning, still alive and I don’t know why. I didn’t go back to the house. I don’t think they would trust me.”

“Now you lead this merry band.”

“Only for the last three months. When I joined, their leader was a man named Abe. I got his job when he took a swan dive off this building on Christmas. No one knew he was even suicidal.”

“What about you? Are you in danger of doing the same thing?”

“Most of the time no,” I lied. “I’m fairly certain everyone here has thought about it. What about you? What happened to the house?”

“You were right, we got overrun. At least that’s what I think happened. Tony and I were out on a hunt when we came back, the zombies were all over including some of our people. I didn’t see Joel. We parted ways. Tony wanted to head out west, said this place was a dead zone. He heard there was a government town out there. I wanted to stay nearby. Figured I’d do another search for my daughter. So I went to the house, to her school, to her friends, to anyone she might have known. Talked to people who thought I was a lunatic because my daughter was obviously dead--” His voice trailed off.

I didn’t know what to say. Dan’s daughter had been 15 and had gone out with friends at the very beginning of this, not far, the Smithtown mall but a riot broke out. She never came home, neither had any of the friends. Dan’s wife died soon after. We stopped seeing each other after his daughter vanished.

I thought about my own daughter. Dan believed she died of the flu. I pushed the memory of her reaching out to me back into that black area of my mind I never wanted to visit. “At least you have me now,” he said and tried to pull me close.

“No—“ I said. “no sex.”

“Why not?”

“What if I’m a carrier? What if that’s the reason I survived? I don’t want to pass it on.”

“If you haven’t given it to the others, you probably don’t have it. Maybe you’re naturally immune. I’ve heard stories.”

“I can’t take a chance. I can’t risk infecting someone over stories. I’m glad you’re here but no sex.”

“CostKing has condoms—“

“Dan—“ I paused and hugged him. Even though he smelled like body odor, I enjoyed his warmth and I missed him. “Even for that one percent chance, I can’t risk it and neither should you. I have to go to lunch with Maddie. I’ll see you later.”

“Mind if I sleep here, just for now, promise. A real bed for a little while.”

“All right.”

Maddie and I were having lunch. We did almost every day. Lunch was my unofficial hour off. No one bothered me unless it was an emergency. Lunch was the only part of the day I looked forward to.

Today we had canned vegetable soup which Maddie spiced up. It smelled strongly of garlic.

“So that man you know, you sleep with him?”

“Maddie,” I said, sharply and took a sip of the soup, good for canned.

“Well, have you?”

“Before,” I said. “He’s the neighbor.”

Maddie gave me the look. I told her most of my secrets but she did not like that I cheated on my husband, even though he was cheating on me. Despite this, she pushed for me to have sex with someone. Jim didn’t think I was a carrier, he thought I was naturally immune. The natural immunity made more sense since I got sick but never became a zombie but I couldn’t bring myself to chance it.

“I miss Carl,” I said. “But after he died and Dan’s wife died, we hooked up for real until I was bitten. He was out on a hunt when it happened.”

“Hon—you aren’t a zombie, you know that?”

“I went over this with him. I’m not going over it with you. I don’t know if I’m immune or a carrier.”

“I want you to be happy.”

“I never will be, not unless this is a bad dream.”

“Be content with what you have, for God has said, ’Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’"

“I didn’t know you were so religious.”

“In this boredom, I’ve had a lot of time to read the good book.” Maddie liked to read but not like Jim who had read every single book in CostKing and was always asking Ernie to bring books if he found them.

“I don’t think I believe in god anymore.” That statement was almost true. I think I believed in him but he had forsaken me.

Maddie ignored my comment and took a sip of soup. “Should have used more basil.”

“It’s great as usual.”

“Let whiner Dave know that.” Maddie’s statement surprised me. She kept the rule that if you had nothing nice to say, say nothing.

“He’s an ass. Ignore him.”

Maddie changed the subject. “You’re doing okay?”

“Am I going to take a dive off the building? No. Am I upset to see someone die? Even someone who might have deserved it? Yes.” 

“Unfortunately sometimes the worst people survive because they are that, or sometimes people get desperate.”

“If she hadn’t threatened Jim, she’d be alive.” If she had killed Jim, I might have killed her myself.

“Nothing we can do about that now. I visited the girl, Jennifer. Poor kid’s in shock. Eli managed to get her to sleep. A good sleep will help.”

“I think so,” I said. I thought about Simon who didn’t really talk and Brie was shy except around Maddie, Rosa and Eli.

“Maddie,” I said.  “Do you think the world will ever go back to the way it used to be?”

“I don’t think so, sugar, but it might not always be like this.”

“No human has ever been able to completely eradicate a disease, and this one goes around and bites you.”

“Perhaps you are the hope. Maybe you’re immune and there are other immune people out there. All we can do now is survive. Maybe when it gets warmer—now that we have that mechanic, we can go see what’s going on.”

“Nothing,” I said and took a gulp of hot soup that burned my throat. “I don’t think anyone here wants to see.”

Jim and I sat around a table in our lounge area with the new group except for Jennifer who stayed in the infirmary with Eli.

“This isn’t a speech,” I said. “We’re here to talk about us, what we do, what we expect. We each have skills but we also have to do hard work. Everyone is expected to pitch in. By now, Jim has given you the grand tour and your emergency packs. Each pack has an emergency radio. The key word is emergency. Don’t waste the battery. ” 

“Hey,” Tanya said lifting her hand with only her pointer finger up. She leaned back in her chair, a CostKing $19.95 garden chair, but didn’t fall. “I heard that sharp shooter don’t do nothing and gets paid in pills.”

“She stays up all night and kills any zombie that comes near. She’s a perfect shot. You see the zombies rotting around the store. Most of those are hers. She’s an exception to the rule. If you don’t like it, you all know where the door is.” Tanya looked peeved, but not mad. She let me continue.

“People call me doctor, but I’m only a nurse, so you don’t have to call me that. Rachel’s fine. I have medical knowledge, but CostKing isn’t a hospital. Please be careful. Don’t eat spoiled food and if you need help with heavy lifting ask Robert. If you need anything to calm your nerves or deal with depression, ask Mindy or me, and eventually, I hope Dan.” I took a breath and looked at him. He smiled.

“Most of the fresh food is gone, eaten while the electricity was on and before it spoiled. Two solar panels and a generator help run a lights and a freezer that has beef and bread. We mostly go without electricity, but there are a lot of batteries and flashlights. No one is allowed in the pharmacy except Jim or me. If you are hungry, outside breakfast and dinner, take anything left on the shelves, though the chips are probably stale. Beware of botulism and bugs in some of the foods, especially the nuts. When in doubt, don’t eat it. Maddie, who teaches the kids here, likes to make a big dinner every night at 6 using a propane grill. You’re welcomed to join her. If you have any food allergies let me or her know. We have no lights except in the infirmary and on the roof, so it’s a good idea to go to bed around sundown and get up at sunrise.”

I paused. “I know you are thinking, CostKing’s logo:
We have it all
, but because we don’t know how long we’ll be here, some things are rationed. Any questions so far?”

“Bathroom?” Sachi asked.

“The bathrooms are in the back near the bakery. Eli maintains one bathroom, the men’s room. We haven’t had running water for a couple of months, but he set up something with rain water and gray water so you can flush but only one stall. If you are having a major BM, I suggest doing it in a pot then toss it off the roof away from the garage. Sometimes the smell attracts them so let the sharp shooter know.

“You are expected to assist in cleaning the bathroom, and keep your living space free of open food. As you can see we have a few cats but it’s because we have vermin. They are attracted to the food. If you see a lot in your aisle, we got plenty of traps. The cats have limited themselves to going in one aisle, so it needs to be cleaned once a week, twice in the summer. It’s a little gross but better than rat bites.”

“What about a bed, some of you got beds?” Tanya asked, again with the pointer finger up.

“The store had five beds and a large number of airbeds. We gave the king size to Maddie because she shares it with two children. The rest of them belong to people already here. You can use an air bed or cots or lounge chairs. We have a lot of those.” I didn’t mention I had a Queen sized bed inherited from Abe.

Tanya looked like she was going to say something but didn’t.

“We are all expected to pitch in and learn things like medicine, shooting, cooking and fixing things. You can get one day off a week for mental health reasons unless there’s an emergency. Jim will make up a schedule for you that should be fair.

“CostKing has stationary bikes, regular bikes and one treadmill that doesn’t require electricity, I suggest getting regular exercise. One thing we don’t have a lot is bullets and additional rifles. Ammo for rifles and shotguns is locked up, they only go to the roof shooters. If you have your own gun, don’t waste bullets on anything but zombies and preferably a kill. The store’s got tire irons and crowbars.”

“You get a lot of zombie attacks?” Tanya asked.

“Once in a while, but mostly they come in small bands. If they move on, we don’t bother with them. If they look like they are trying to get in, we’ll take them down. Our three shooters, Annemarie, Harlan and especially Princess keep the numbers thinned. Tanya, you should train with her.” It would probably cost us more Vicodin or Xanax.

“Prefer not to work with that white bitch.”

“None of us do, but she can hit anything.”

“Was she really a cop?” Henry asked.