Zombie Fallout 2 (35 page)

It was close on lunch by the time I had finished my chores. It wasn’t steak but there was absolutely nothing wrong with the pork tenderloin chops Carol was dishing up.

I parked my butt in the living room after lunch. The couch was inviting. The fire was warming. About the only thing that could have made this perfect was if ESPN were on. Carol had never had a television as far as I had known. Was that even possible? Wasn’t there a law against that or something? I shuddered at the thought. I think the only reason she ever got a phone was to stay in touch with her daughter.

“Let’s just say Talbot, you have an uncanny ability to say everything without opening your mouth.” Tracy said from the entryway. She came over and kissed my face. “And that’s what I love about you.”

“When we leaving then?” BT asked.

“I was hoping to give you more time to recover.” I was surprised when he nodded in agreement. He must be hurting if he couldn’t even manage a small semblance of male macho bravado.

“That you come with us when we leave.” I said hastily, hoping that maybe the shock value of the words would be lost in their fast delivery, it wasn’t.

“I’ll do no such thing.” Carol answered adamantly.

“Mom.”

“Hush, Tracy. This is my home. I’m 79 years old and I have no desire to start somewhere else. I was born in this house. God willing I’ll die in it.”

“Mom?!” Tracy cried with more volume.

“And what’s more I don’t see the point in any of you leaving. There’s plenty of chickens and pigs to get us through the winter. Plus there’s Bessie.”

“At least think about it Carol. We’re leaving in two days.” That did shake her. I watched as all those years of hard farm work suddenly caught up with her. She gripped the couch arm much like I had earlier this morning. Tracy helped her to sit.

There was not much said the rest of that afternoon. Mostly idol talk about ‘remember whens’. The past had a much glossier shine now that the future was so tarnished. BT plunged himself into sleep. Most likely in a desperate bid to accelerate his bodies healing capabilities. Tommy stayed on the far end of the room from Justin but I would occasionally catch him staring raptly at him. If Justin knew or cared that he was sometimes Tommy’s center of attention he never let on. Tracy and Carol had left after a while to most likely discuss what they were going to do. I felt it was best not to intervene. Henry was laying by the fire, which coincidentally flared up every few minutes or so. Better that whatever noxious gases were spewing from him were consumed in the fire than disseminated out into the rest of the room.

Jen prowled around the house like a panther, constantly looking out the windows for party crashers. Travis had the air of many a military men I had been exposed to, he was able to pull off the duality of having heightened awareness will looking casually indifferent. I had envied those men and their façade of calm demeanor. Nicole had at some point come down from her room, eyes puffy from crying and into my arms. She had almost instantly fallen asleep, mourning can be an essence draining process. And me? Besides keeping a mental note of where and what everybody else was up to, I stared at the fire. The shifting shapes, patterns and colors helped to ease my troubled mind.

Jen was right. This was not an easily defendable location. Sure we could see the enemy coming for a quarter of a mile in nearly every direction. Then what? They would have a 360 degree angle of attack. We were vulnerable from all sides. The two largest egresses were the front door off the hallway and the back door in the kitchen. There were at least 12 windows on the lower level that were big enough for an intruder to gain entry. This was a nightmare. I knew without asking that there was no way Carol was going to let me shore up our meager defenses. I’d never be able to pull off cutting her staircase up. Tracy would kill me. The more I thought about it the more I concluded that our best defense was to not have one. We had to get gone.

I now regretted my decision to tell Justin about my amended plans. Whatever Eliza had originally planned she was surely making her own adjustments. I could only hope that she wasn’t in a position to move too quickly. I would have left that same evening if BT had been in a better place. I could leave him with Carol. That stray thought came out of left field and was quickly denounced otherwise I’d have Eliza and BT hunting us down.

I alternated constantly that day about the silence in the house. On one side it felt like the calm before the storm. On the other was the peace and harmony with the world that living on a farm can bring to ones soul, although I knew the falsity of that fantasy. I guess I was in a sort if self-induced trance as I watched that fire. So much so that my eyes began to itch from lack of blinking.

“Miss me?” I heard a male voice say, almost as if we were using cans and string and he was about a mile away. It was that indistinct.

I had finally cracked up. I mean I always knew this was an eventuality. Years of upbringing from a narcissistic mother, the intake of multiple drugs, including every hallucinogen known to man, Marine Corps boot camp and a subsequent tour of duty in Afghanistan, had left me vulnerable. Throw a zombie apocalypse on top of that and what do you have? Aberration Apple Pie. I had finally succumbed. I had slipped over the edge. The question now was how far was I going to fall? Was this to be a free fall into a bottomless pit or was it going to be a slow steady descent into insanity? If it was the slow descent, I could watch and take notes of each agonizingly hideous step down the path into Crazy Town. I was not strong enough to handle a duality within me. Hell Tracy could barely handle one of me, what was she going to think of this new development?

“You still there, shithead?” My other half asked.

Oh great, not only am I delusional but my other half is a rude prick. Wonderful.

“I’m talking to you!” It shouted. The voice was gaining clarity, as if the person on the other end was getting stronger or closer, or both.

And like that, the hold over me was gone. Now if I could just untangle the grip of Nicole’s hair I had in my fist, I’d be all set.

“Was I dreaming?” I asked him. He shrugged in return. Justin was no longer in the room. The fire flared a violent purple and then went back to its normal hues of orange and yellow. What the hell could Henry have aired out that would do that? Whatever it was, it must have been rancid. Even he couldn’t take it as he stood up and walked a few feet away from the offending zone and plopped back down contentedly.

BT managed to eat some dinner before he returned back into his self-induced coma. Jen could barely contain herself at the table, if I hadn’t known better I might have thought she had a serious case of crabs. She was more like an animal that could feel the change in the air, way before their ‘superior’ human masters could. A storm was brewing and not of the atmospheric kind either.

I was feeling loosely detached tonight, whether from my earlier encounter with my bad half or I was picking up on whatever wavelength Jen was. Carol, however, was whistling in merriment as she placed dish upon dish of good old country cooking on the table.

I was going to say something about last meals and all but that seemed in very poor taste. Even if it was to be, what was the point in pointing it out? Tracy barely picked at her food. Apparently her mother had made it abundantly clear on what she was doing, and that involved not going with us. If we got out of here soon enough, that was the best decision she could have made. Being on the run is hard on the young and the hale, something even I wasn’t feeling much of these past few days as I absently rubbed my knee.

“I’m thinking of growing some jalapeno peppers this year.” Carol said as she dropped off a tray of what looked like mashed sweet potatoes. “I’ve never grown those before, they’ve got so much more flavor than the bell peppers I usually grow.”

Carol smiled and dropped off a plate stacked with sweet half ears of corn. I smiled too as I grabbed an ear and smeared two liberal pats of butter on it. Okay so Bessie had her pluses besides being a walking t-bone. Two days on a farm on a steady diet of meat and cream and I could already start to feel my body filling out. In three months I’d be one of those monstrosities they used to show on TruTv, 500 pounds and expanding.

“Carol sit down and eat.” I told her as I took another bite of wonderful fulfillment.

Henry had fallen asleep under the table waiting for something to find its way onto his domain, the floor. For some reason he had decided to use my feet as a headrest and his drool had soaked through my socks. When he finally picked his head up, I was relieved. When he barked I was concerned. No one moved except for Carol who laid another plate of what looked like cranberries on the table. It was difficult for me to tell though, all the cranberries I had ever bought were of the cylindrically shaped kind and usually had to be sliced with a knife. It went death quiet awfully quick. My glass of water, as it struck the top of the saltshaker, was the loudest thing in the room. Nothing or nobody else moved. Henry stood up, I could almost feel him bristling as he growled.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard him growl.” Jen said as she pushed her chair back stood up and took out her .45 Desert Eagle from her shoulder holster.

We all stood when the bell rang, but not the zombie alarm, the actual doorbell.