Least Likely To Survive (26 page)

“I have no idea what my kids got into today, but I know those stains are never coming out,” Kim added still smiling conspiratorially at the other woman.  “Erin’s kids were in the daycare all day, and stayed cleaner than mine did in training with us!”  She shook her head in the apparent amazement of the dirt attracting ability her children seemed to possess.  I smiled back; grateful she reminded me the other woman’s name was Erin.

After a few more minutes of the most pointless and politically correct back and forth I’d ever been party to, I politely excused myself and made my way back to the club box.  It seemed wrong that we would all probably die soon, and had been standing around discussing how best to get chocolate pudding stains out.

It also seemed wrong that this place was filled with so many families, and they were keeping the infected in here with us.  I really did want the satisfaction of watching this place burn before I left, as long as it took the evil housed within down too.  However much this idea intrigued me though, I thought back to the families I was angry for, and decided to leave it be.  Besides, I had somewhere else to go, but did they?  Probably not, or else they wouldn’t be here in the first place.

I dumped all the new clothes in the box, leaving each set for its new owner, and decided it was time to eat.  Well, it wasn’t really a decision, more like my stomach decided it would leave me no choice but to feed it or it would eat itself.  I started for the restaurant on the roof where we went for every meal.  With as big as this place was, I was getting pretty good at figuring out where shit was.  Now that I had a general idea of how to get around, it seemed smaller somehow.

I got there in no time, and paused just inside the door to take inventory.  It was quickly apparent there was no point to this as the place was deserted and most of the food had been put away.  I sighed and walked over to the salad bar where there were still a few items out, and grabbed a couple of rolls, an apple and a stray brownie, then made my way to the patio where Jack and I had been the night before.

Stepping out into the crisp night air, I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, grateful to see the stars through the clearing smoke.  Most of the fires had stopped burning and the night was left calm and almost peaceful, save for the zombies still causing a little raucous in the parking lot.  I went over to the bench by the ledge, and caught sight of Jack sitting there, cigarette dangling from his lips, and a guitar in his hands.

I sat down beside him, and set my food on the little table to my left.  “Where’d you find that?”

“In a storage room off the arena,” he said as he gently strummed out a few notes.  I watched his fingers expertly pluck the strings and shivered thinking of those hands on my skin. It was getting hard to ignore my feelings for him when he sat here like this, beautiful and mysterious and just plain sexy.

“Oh, cool.”  I picked up a roll and started picking at it, putting little pieces in my mouth and chewing slowly.  He didn’t say anything else, just sat there strumming some nameless little melody into the night.  I stared off into the skyline, and let the music ease my mind.  I didn’t want to talk; I knew we needed to talk about what was developing between us, but just couldn’t bring myself to do so. 

Jack rested his guitar on his lap and pulled the cigarette from between his lips and handed it to me.  I started to ask if we were out or something when I realized what it was. 

“Holy fuck! How’d you get the weed in?” I had truly never been so happy to see a joint in my whole life.  It had been a rough couple of days and I welcomed the brief mental vacation it would allow.

He pulled his guitar back up and continued to strum.  “Went down to the Hummer.  No one asked what I was doing.” He looked over at me with his award-winning mischievous grin and winked.

I smiled back and put the joint to my lips, lighting it and inhaling deeply.  The moment the smoke reached my lungs I could feel it entering my bloodstream and the whole world slowed down.  I took a few more puffs and passed it back.

Leaning back into the seat, I let every muscle in my body relax and focused on just breathing. Damn, I had missed this.  I didn’t have to smoke all the time, but when I could, welcomed the distraction.  It seemed like so long ago I was getting high to distract from the lack of people in my life and my innate misery, but now it was to forget how truly awful things had become.

  My eyes traced the outlines of the buildings still standing and it seemed off that everything was bathed in such darkness.  I suppose it wasn’t too weird, considering we were in the only building with electricity, or people for that matter, yet it still didn’t sit well.  I had never seen a city so dark now that the fires were out.  I’d only ever seen this kind of true night in the mountains or driving some no-name road in some no-name state.

Looking down into the parking lot, I noticed there was now more dead milling about than there had been earlier.  It had to be the lights.  My pulse sped a little thinking about the fact that we were basically a shining lighthouse on the verizon, guiding the ships home.  Except replace the ships with flesh eating maniacs and the whole thing became a bit more terrifying.

The breeze picked up and caught one of my curls, forcing it to tickle my neck.  I started to put down the apple I was now working on to move it, but Jack beat me to it.  He brushed it back into the messy topknot I had assembled on top of my head, and I shivered as he traced his thumb back down my neck.

“
Angie…”
I turned a pained expression on him, and he swallowed his next words.

“I can’t Jack.  Not now at least.”  I looked down at the half eaten apple in my hand, hoping it had the answers I needed, but it just stared back up at me blankly.  I turned back to him, aware of his hand still on my neck.  “I know we need to talk about this,
thing
, between us, but it doesn’t feel right to do that now.  At least not until I have a chance to breath and don’t have the feeling of impending doom hovering in the back of my mind.”

He pulled his hand away, his mouth tightening into a line as his eyes narrowed at me. “And when exactly do you think that will end?  Look around us,” he raised his arm and made a wave, encompassing the view of the demolished city before us.  “The world is now a war zone, and you’re never going to have time again to sit and ponder the universe while knitting, or something.  This is it, Angie.  This is the new reality, and it would be stupid to stop being human and living just because we could die.”  My heart lurched at the fire in his eyes, and I knew he was right. 
Fuck
.  The world would never be the same, but that didn’t mean we had to stop being human.  Wasn’t that the point of surviving anyway?  To carry on with our crazy and messy human lives?  Wasn’t that what made being alive worth it in the first place?

I held his gaze for another minute, before dropping my gaze to my lap and the forgotten apple.  “I know,” I whispered to it, but it didn’t answer.  Looking back up at Jack, I couldn’t keep the desperation out of my voice, “I agree with you, but how about a compromise?”

He got wary, and pulled back ever so slightly.  “And what’s that?”

“When we get on the boat, and we’re a safe distance from land, can we talk about it then?”

“Why then, why not now?”

I took a deep breath, and held it for a second before letting it out.  I had to come clean if I was going to appease him at all.  He deserved that much.  “Because in all honesty, I don’t know how I feel, or how I want to feel, and none of it makes any sense and I’m still trying to figure it all out.”  I took another deep breath and noticed how much lighter I felt after my little confession.  I picked up the brownie and stuffed it into my mouth to avoid having to say anything else.  I should have thought that through, as I hadn’t brought anything to drink with me outside and instantly started to cough as I choked on the rich chocolate now lodged in my throat, suffocating me to death.

Jack started laughing at me as he leaned over grabbing the bottle next to him and handing it to me, but not before giving a sound pat to my back dislodging the now offensive food item.  Now able to breathe, I grabbed the bottle from his hand and drank deeply.  Once my throat was clear I exhaled loudly.  “
Fuck
!  That was intense, thanks,” I said while still panting and gulping in great mouthfuls of air.

He smiled the flirty half smile at me that always makes me melt, “It was almost death by chocolate.”

“Haha.”  I rolled my eyes at him and took another swig of the bottle, and realizing what it was, stopped to look at it.  “Where the fuck did you find Chivas Regal?”

Picking his guitar back up, he took another puff off the joint that had been burning away in the ashtray and resumed his strumming.  “Same place I found the guitar.  Figured it was a set.”

I shook my head.  Leave it to the infamous Jack Jones to find both a guitar and top shelf scotch in a storage room while bringing back weed from the car.  I leaned over and grabbed his pack of smokes, taking one out for myself and lighting it.  Sitting back I exhaled deeply, realizing that the thing that had been missing from my fucked up day was Nicotine.  It occurred to me I hadn’t smoked since this morning, and strangely that thought was weirder than anything else.  I was in fact, a smoker, and had never been deterred from my bad habit by anything before.  Of course I had now been to a zombie apocalypse, been involved with a pseudo-government conspiracy, and been face to boob with mean fake breasts. You would think those things combined would be causing me to chain smoke, but no.  Go figure.

I sat there, watching the stars twinkle in the southern night sky, enjoying my toxins, and listened to Jack play.  He was actually pretty good.  I had to wonder if maybe music should have been his career path, and was now curious how he fell into acting in the first place.  I looked over at him, and studied him as he was lost in the melody he was playing.  Acting seemed like such a bizarre career for a guy like him; he was so laid back and easy going.  He seemed to deal well with all my crazy, of course that could be from years of dealing with prima donnas and Hollywood execs.  I would have to ask him his story one day.  On the other hand, if I did, he would ask mine, and I would rather eat dog poop then dredge that shit up.

Finished with my cigarette, I stamped it out into the ashtray on the table and stood to leave.  It was only when I stood that I felt the full effects of the scotch and weed coursing through my veins, leaving me warm and lightheaded.  I must have been swaying as Jack put down his guitar and stood to steady me.  Laughing as he held my arm, “Are you okay?”

I put my hand on his respectively, “Yeah, the world just picked that minute to pull a Tilt-A-Whirl.”  I looked up at him and returned his smile.  I barely had time to focus on his eyes when he leaned in and was suddenly kissing me.  The pot and booze had relaxed me enough that I couldn’t muster the energy to pull away, or be reasonable, and I kissed him back.  Taking that for a green light, he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me flush with his chest and used his tongue to tease the seam of my lips in invitation. 

The combination of drugs, alcohol, moonlight, gentle breeze and stars were enough to cause my inhibitions to hit the road, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, lifting to my toes, and opening my lips to let him in.  Letting out a low grumble of approval, he held me tighter and deepened our kiss. 

The mix of our tongues and the taste of the scotch and cigarettes on our breath filled the air around us, and the scent of his aftershave joined the sense party and I was almost brought to my knees with want.  I let out a little whimper as my knees gave ever so slightly, and briefly considered fainting.  I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had been kissed like this and realized how much I missed it.  Missed the kissing, and the rollercoaster feeling careening through my insides at the emotion behind the kiss.  It wasn’t just a simple meeting of the lips; it was fireworks, and champagne corks, and meadows filled with flowers and sunshine, and everything else that made being in this fucked up world worth it.

Too soon, he broke our kiss, and pulled back to smile at me.  “I’ve been dying to do that all day.”  He supported his argument by pulling my glasses off my face and planting soft little kisses all over my eyes and cheeks.  Fuck, this man was going to be the death of me.

I stared into his face, and wanted to cry at how perfect he looked standing here, on this perfect patio, on this perfect night.  I didn’t want to cry because it was perfect, but because I knew it was all an illusion.  This wasn’t a serene night for lovers to play, it was filled with fire and death and the unknown.

I didn’t want to let him in on the dark and fucked up thoughts that had seeped in and ruined an amazing moment, so instead I pulled back and feigned a yawn.

He looked down at me for a long moment, and my heart sank as his expression became blank and he handed my glasses back to me. “Yeah, it’s been a long day, we should turn in.”  He leaned down and picked up his smokes, the bottle, and the guitar and together we made our way back inside to the club box.

Once again safely ensconced in our little residence, I sighed and started towards our room to grab my toothbrush, when I decided to detour to the kids’ rooms.  I pushed open the first door and stuck my head in to find both kids and the dog sound asleep together.  Glancing around, I noticed that all of their things we had brought in with us were packed up and ready to go.  I felt guilty thinking of how I hadn’t remembered to come up with an escape plan yet, but figured Jack must have something by now.