Delilah points towards her chest and says. “My eyes are up here, Mister.” He wasn’t looking. David turns to leave and Delilah says. “See you don’t like it, do you, people joking around?” When she laughs she slightly pushes her tongue between her rows of white teeth.
David looks around for the camp. A black dot in the darkness. “I think I should head back now.”
Delilah pushes her lips out. “Don’t be like that. All pouty.” She pinches his cheek.
He pulls away. “Don’t.” He sees Abigail running in the bunker halls.
He hikes away into complete darkness, she runs up to him. Humid Spring wind blows in Delilah’s hair as she clutches his hand from behind, making him turn to face her. She drops the torch on the mud and then puts both hands around his neck and kisses him with amorous lips on his mouth, putting him off balance. The tip of her nose is cold and her mouth warm, creating a tornado in his head.
Afterwards, Delilah says. “I’m not going to wait years like Ava to take what I want.”
David says as he backs off her. “You didn’t have to do that. I’m not going to abandon you or anything.”
Delilah bends for the torch. “I didn’t do that because of that and you know it. Why are you scared of a good thing? Screw you for thinking that.”
David says. “You’ve known me for a few days and in a few days you’ll forget me.”
Strips of light from the torch on the ground is barely revealing her face, Delilah slightly bites her lower lip and her eyes look to the side with tears in them, so David walks towards her trying to console her. She picks up and points the torch at him, but he slaps it out of his way and hugs her with his cold arms. “Delilah you’re just confused, it’s normal. Do you want the ugly truth?”
Delilah breathes in tears. “Of course.”
He says. “Go be happy, you’re free, I’m not…I’m probably going to die at the end of this trip and I don’t want you to experience another loss.”
She puts her head deeper into his arms. “It’s already too late for that.”
The pair is silent for a moment, then Delilah says. “If you live through all of this you’re going to feel like a jackass for lying to me.”
David smiles and says. “Besides, what do you see in me anyways I’m a loser and you’re a…”
Delilah wipes one eye. “I don’t know. My superpower is having bad taste in men.”
David suddenly lets go of her and falls to his back rigidly, fainting. Delilah panics and shines the torch over him to find a wound. He comes to and has one hand on his stomach and the other on his forehead. “I’m fine. I’ve been having bad headaches and my exhaustion is worsening them. It’s my concussion.”
Delilah says. “My big lips must have sent you over the edge. Too much blood to your little head.” She smiles when he does. Delilah takes off his black ski mask and traces her finger around his lips. David likes that she doesn’t dwell in awkwardness or shove it in his face, but values time.
David turns his head trying to look backwards. “Just leave me here with the torch, I’ll be fine, we’re only about a block away from camp, I think. I have some vials of their scent, monsters won’t get me.” He peers at the luminous numbers on his wristwatch.
Delilah’s quiet crouching beside him.
David pauses, looks her in the eyes. “I deserve this for being an asshole to you and everyone else. Just go, I don’t like anyone seeing me like this.”
Delilah takes off her pack and gives him some water. After he drinks, she leans down to his face, checking his forehead. “Don’t worry I won’t take advantage of your manhood. Wanna bet?”
David raises his head when she backs away. “Delilah, please go. I’ll just be a few minutes behind you.”
She lies next to him. “Shut up already and go to sleep. It’s only a few hours to sunrise. I can handle it, trust me. Stop being such a drama queen and go to sleep.”
He says. “I’m not tired. You look more beautiful in the dark…that came out wrong.”
She starts to say something, David leans in to kiss her. She closes her eyes.
A few hours later, Youngblood comes running up to find the two of them asleep in each other’s arms using David’s poncho as a blanket. Youngblood crotches down and shakes David until he awakens. David sluggishly opens his eyes and panics because he’s dazed and confused. He reaches for his gun. The jerking wakes up Delilah as well. Youngblood has a big grin on his face and he says to David. “I knew it, you horn dog. I bet the other guys, it would be Delilah not Ava. We’re betting future spoils out here.”
David stands up and rubs his hands through his hair, holding it back for a second, stretching his face. “Look here, Crazyhorse, nothing happened last night.”
Youngblood puts a hand on David’s shoulder to calm him. “Did you two get high too last night, you’re a little off? Next time invite me to the party.” Delilah finally gets up and rummages through her pack looking for her toothbrush.
Youngblood says. “You’re the man, end of story.” Turns around and heads for camp. David tries to talk to him, but Youngblood has his fingers in his ears.
Next, Delilah gives David a toothbrush and when he’s done brushing, he says. “What happened last night?”
Delilah says as she puts her hair up. “You kept coming on to me and you said lets run away together from all of this. Borderline needy.” But before she can finish, she laughs because she can’t keep a straight face anymore.
She stands up facing away from him, and proceeds to take off her shirt and pulls up her black jeans, buttoning them. She says. “As a little girl all I had to worry about was waiting for my tits to come in…”
David says to her nude back. “Huh, so did everyone else.”
Delilah laughs and says. “What?”
Ava runs with Youngblood, to find David squatting down going through the pack and Delilah with her back to him changing her shirt.
Ava says. “I don’t even want to know. Let’s just go.” She tosses the poncho to his face. To hurry up.
Delilah says as she turns around. “Calm down, nothing happened, besides David collapsing and hitting his head on the ground.” Ava checks his head, she says to Delilah. “You should have called for help.”
Delilah says. “I had it under control. It’s his concussion and fatigue. That’s it.”
Delilah walks up to David and pats him in the ass for Ava to see, then walks back to the camp. David’s eyes widen with surprise and he blushes for a second.
David sits on a log, stretching, and looking up at Ava. “I have medicine, but I’m saving it for Phillip, I know he’s going to need it more than I do. We need him alert and pain-free. I have some adrenaline shots, pain pills, and antibiotics, along with some other first aid supplies.”
Ava says. “Take a pill, it’s not going to hurt.”
David says. “If I was alone I probably would of died if it wasn’t for Delilah.”
Ava says. “You don’t know that.” David can tell she’s thinking: I’m still not convinced she belongs with us. She’s a liability, mark my words. He doesn’t want to open that can of worms again, so he simply stands up, letting her be right and save him the hassle. “Let’s get to higher ground to see what we’re dealing with in this area.”
Ava says. “Thank goodness, I thought you were going to say I have a plan. You may be a little off like Youngblood said. Maybe you should pop open those medical supplies and stick a thermometer up your ass.”
David says. “I’ll even let you hold it.”
Right before the group leaves the campsite, David reseals his jacket and says to Delilah. “What if I scream really loud like a girl before we take off. I’m tired of being so quiet, I can’t even burp outdoors without breaking a sweat.” David opens his mouth and looks up at the clouds for a moment, but he doesn’t scream, he brings his head back down and says to Delilah. “Never mind, I’m too macho.”
The wind tugs at Delilah’s new shirt, she looks at David and sc
reams as loud as she can. David laughs at the scared looks on the faces of the group, and he says to her. “Where’ve you been my whole life?”
The morning sun is at their backs as the group leaves camp.
7
David says. “I know what I’m talking about, I wrote the book about writing the book.”
Youngblood says. “What’s does that even mean?”
“No clue, Youngman.”
Youngblood and David are returning from a hunting excursion, Youngblood says while carrying some rabbits. “Bears hibernate trust me, that’s what everybody says.”
David says. “No they don’t, they lay dormant, they can wake up if you mess with them. Hibernating is when your body shuts down for a period of time, like a coma with a guarantee to reawaken after a certain time. And if I was to walk into a cave with a bear it’ll bite me in the ass if I was to sneeze because they’re dormant and sensitive to sound. Ask Hugh Glass.”
David stops to look at a half eaten deer with a zombie skewered in its antlers. It feels out of place to him. Depressions in the clay ground lead away.
Youngblood walks past it and laughs. “Ok, ok, I believe you. Tell me again why are we talking about this nonsense?”
David says. “Probably because we don’t have any jobs to complain about or sports to watch. Women should love this, more time to listen to their nagging. But don’t tell them that because only they are allowed to be annoyed.”
Youngblood says. “I feel for you, you have two crazy females stressing you out.”
David says. “After this is all done I won’t ever see either of them again. After I help you guys, I have somewhere to go.”
“Got it.”
“Don’t say anything to them about me leaving.”
Youngblood says. “Sure.” David has a guess why he’s so amenable to a random request.
David picks up his catch, a small boar, and holds it with two hands around his neck like a scarf. “What do you look for in a woman, anyways?”
Youngblood talks with a job interviewee’s nervousness. “She has to have ten toes and ten fingers.” More question-like than a declaration.
“Anything else, Perv?”
“Yeah, um, a…vagina.”
David wants to laugh. “That always helps.”
Youngblood simulates sex with his hands, inserting a finger in a hole a few times. “You two aren’t?” Referring to Ava.
David says. “Fingering ourselves, not lately.”
In an irritated tone, Youngblood says. “If only we had a helicopter, our story together would be over quicker.”
Cooper and Delilah are at the new campsite and both look up when David and Youngblood arrive after a morning hunt.
David looks for Ava. “Where’s everyone?” Preparing himself mentally for the worst, now a second nature rather than a fleeting feeling.
Cooper gestures his thumb in a north direction. “They went that way, to some small city.”
David says. “Why? We’ve been traveling and staying only in the countryside. No cities.”
Cooper says. “Ask them when they get back.” David is most upset about being left out of the decision loop, he hides it well until he drops his boar at the feet of Coop to skulk into seclusion.
8
Inside a remote city, Ava turns off her bike in front of a deep crater, where a large building used to be, and she removes the bandanna around her mouth. Looking at the bottom, she discovers a pit of bodies and quickly puts her bandanna back on. A light is flickering in her eyes in the upper distance and it pulls her attention. After parking the other dirt bike around the crater, Lou comes up behind her to get a better look at the flickering light. “It looks like an admirer up there in that building is trying to signal you.”
Ava’s looking at the pile of bodies. “A warning or a welcome?”
The Chief stands beside them. “We’re not staying that long to find out.”
Lou says to Ava. “Let me see your pocket mirror.”
She says to Lou as she digs in her pocket. “How’d you know I have one?”
“Lucky guess.”
She walks over to the Chief as Lou catches the sun with the mirror, she says to the Chief. “Does he know what he’s doing?”
“He thinks he does.”
There’s too many craters in the streets to drive their motorcycles. The Indians leave their body length coats with the two dirt bikes, and each person takes a weapon from their body and heads deeper on foot into the city and farther away from their way home.
They enter a different block lined with shattered storefronts, the Indians now have an arrow in their bows, loosely cocked, and are walking on opposite sides of Ava who is upfront, everyone is only watching their side of the street. The group’s huddle becomes tighter like a fist, with their backs to each other as they come between two rusty cars.
Ava stops patrolling and stage whispers. “Did you see that?”
Lou says. “No.”
Ava says. “Give me David’s shield.” Lou has left his shotgun, and is carrying only his rifle and a bow like the Chief. Both discussed the benefits of adopting a long ranged strategy in case they were pinned down, but they also almost talked each other out of accompanying her today.
Ava glances side-to-side at the cars with the shield in her left hand. “Open those doors and use them as cover.”
Lou says. “What?”
Ava says. “Now.”
Three lithely people swiftly run out from behind the edge of the building up ahead and start discharging their handguns into the group. Ava crotches in front of the group with her shield held tight and her head tucked inside the shield. The Chief unlocks his door on Ava’s right with ease and aims his bow from behind it, Lou tries to do the same, but his door is wedged in rust. Lou says, “shit,” and he speedily dives behind Ava and scuttles behind the car with the Chief kneeling beside it. Bullets clash into Ava’s shield and shatter the car windshields on both her sides. She shouts over the gunfire. “Tell me when.”
The three people are standing on the corner using the lampposts as cover, the Chief fires an arrow into a man’s chest, thrusting him back into his friends, stopping their gunplay for the time being.
Lou shouts. “Now.” And fires his rifle into the last two people like his gun has infinite ammo. Ava can hear their yells of agony, so she breaks cover and explodes towards them. She still has the shield on her left hand and is running, she can barely see the last man limping around a corner when she catches up to him. He’s about to pass the building down the street from her, she fires a warning shot and yells. “Stop.”
He gradually turns around, clutching his shoulder, and chooses to drop his handgun. Ava gently approaches him with her handgun pointed at his face. The shield is heavy and cumbersome on her arm. He stares left and right with sweat trickling down his temples. She says. “Don’t.”
He begins to sob and says through it. “I didn’t even shoot at you, I thought you were our friends returning, but then all hell broke loose.” The man dabs both of his teary eyes with his sleeve; Ava lowers her gun. “We don’t want any trouble either, and I haven’t seen any of your group on my way here.” He has engorged pimples on his face that look like pink nipples, ringworm circles down his neck, and loose skin on the back of his hands. He better not touch me.
Ava checks her back, then says. “Slide me your gun, we can figure it out.” Assuming the role of the new sheriff in town.
The man squats low and places one hand on the handle and pauses, Ava squeezes her gun in anticipation. From the man’s blind spot a human hound zombie comes into the man’s peripheral vision from beyond the corner and bites into his face, taking a chunk out like an apple. The zombie tears and snatches more pieces of flesh from his crying head. A squeaky toy in a excited dog’s mouth. Ava jerks backwards and says, “oh shit,” she can only see the zombie’s head for a second, it quickly maneuvers around and hunches over again to eat into the other side of the man’s head. Screams have
ceased. The zombie is walking on all four limbs with its back bent in reverse; it has matted paper thin skin.
Ava can see its organs swimming under the light. She shoots at the albino complexion creature in its protruding back hump and it drops back and out of sight like a eager dog to a horn. She turns and sprints, hooking around a corner to see the Indians running into her and she forwardly waves at them to keep moving in the other direction, she doesn’t repeat herself and so they chase after her like she stole something.
After a few blocks, she stops and leans back against a brick wall, breathing in heavily. The Indians come to a halt by slingshotting backwards to catch her. Unsure if they want to know what new hell this is.
While standing and resting her hands in the curve of her lower back. She says. “I’ve never seen one like that, it was nude, all white with no lips, thin limbs, and was crawling on the ground like a spider.”
The Indians look at each other in skepticism, then the Chief says. “I’ve only heard stories, you sure?” Ava sucks in her lips and eyes him a look not to ask again.
Lou says to her as she looks around the corner like a thief. “Did you shoot it?”
“Yes, a few shots in its back and it didn’t finch.”
Lou says. “Just blast its head off.”
Ava says. “It’s not that easy, it moves on all four limbs and is pretty quick on the ground…like a fucking spider.”
The Chief says. “Lets get back to our group.”
Lou says. “We’re about thirty minutes from our bikes, how many did you see?”
Ava says. “Just the one.” She then shoves David’s shield into Lou’s stomach and says. “Thanks. You take point.”
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