by David Rogers
“I’m trying.” Milo said.
“I didn’t say you weren’t.” Austin assured him as he pulled out two cans of his own. He glanced at Jessica and waggled the two cans at her briefly, adding a wink to the cans’ movement, and she just shook her head at him with a smile. He was not only a guy, but a big one that made ‘normal’ big guys look small. It took a lot of calories to keep him going. Fortunately he was up to carrying them.
“First step’s always the hardest.” Austin said as he set the cans down and pulled his own Swiss Army Knife out. “For anything. Dealing with zombies, that’s just one more thing.”
“Pretty important these days though.” Jessica observed as she went into her pack again, this time for one of her extra pairs of socks.
“How do you guys do it?” Milo said. Blurted, really. When she looked at him he seemed almost embarrassed by his question.
“You just do.” Jessica heard herself saying. She shook herself a little and covered with a shrug. “They’re here, they’re not going anywhere. Short of managing to find some sort of dream camp somewhere, like maybe a fully stocked Wal-Mart that’s been turned into a fort or something, living just means you have to deal with them.”
“How’d you end up on the boats?” Austin asked as he opened his dinner; beef stew and beef ravioli.
“Luck.”
“We’re all lucky.”
Jessica nodded as she pulled the socks onto her hand so she could manipulate the can of hash without burning herself. “If you’re still here, you were lucky.”
“No, I mean it.” Milo said. “I literally stumbled across Byron and his sister, just as they were leaving her building. Saturday, it was Saturday, almost night. There were a … zombies, they were getting … it was bad. My neighbors, the ones across the hall, and then the guy next door to my apartment, they … converted. Changed. Whatever you call it.”
“Right.” Austin said.
“There was a lot of screaming coming from across the hall. It was a family, see. Some of them were … eating the others. I caught a glimpse when I came out to figure out what was going on. Their door was open, and …” he trailed off, his expression twisting unhappily.
“Right.”
“That’s when the other neighbor came out. But he broke the door down doing it. He saw me, and he was coming right for me. That’s when I just ran. I just ran. Down the stairs, because he was between me and the elevators.”
“Where was this?” Austin asked.
“Port St. Lucie. That’s where I lived. I found out later that’s where Byron and Kayla lived too.”
“He told me once he had a shop there.” Austin said, putting the stew on his candle stove and reaching into one of his harness pouches. “Rented jet skis out or something like that.”
“Yeah, and fixed them too.” Milo said. “Anyway, when I hit the street and saw the other zombies that were out there, I sort of froze. My car was in the garage, behind the building, but there were zombies in the way. Not too many, not like today, but, you know.”
“Yeah.” Jessica said as she used the knife to stir the hash about again. It was tricky to do without spilling it, and she was hungry so she wanted to eat as much of it as she could. But she was patient, holding the can just off the soda stove while she probed with the blade to shift the food around. “The first couple of times I had zombies nearby it was hardly any. A couple of singles, then two more later on. But they were enough to freak me out.”
She felt Austin shift beside her, felt his eyes flick to her, but she kept hers on her dinner as she spoke. He knew what she was leaving unsaid, because she’d told him those zombies had included her mother, Candice’s grandmother, eating her father. Time, and a lot of crying, had let her put that into the box in her head. And keep it there, in the box. She was actually surprised she could talk about it and sound so calm.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t love them.” she told herself, putting the hash back on the heat. “It just means I’ve got things to do.”
“Byron was there.” Milo said. “He saw me, and he saw I was just, you know, stuck. He called me over, told me to get in the car if I needed to get out. So I did. I got in the car. I stayed with him, and we got out of the city, away from the coast. He took us to a friend of his north of Indiantown, but when the evacuation camp there got overrun, they headed for the lake. I just kept tagging along.
“We’d picked up a few other people, including Nate. And Nate knew someone who lived in Grove Beach, on a houseboat. We convoyed up there, found Nate’s friend was, uh, a zombie, but Byron was the man by that point. Not that he wasn’t already, but he’d figured out the new way things had to work. Like you said.”
“Right.” Austin said again.
“So Byron shot the guy, a couple of us dragged him off the boat, and we got organized. Byron got us organized. Grabbed the houseboat, and another one. And a fishing boat too. Just piled everyone in and headed out into the middle of the lake. Byron and Nate went back ashore, looking for supplies and bringing more boats back, and some others came with them. People, I mean.”
“And most of you have been out there ever since.” Austin said. He was stirring his stew, using a spoon he’d produced from his pack.
“I just, I never needed to do anything else.” Milo said. “We had Byron and Nate, and then Arcelia, and Carlo, and they never talked like they wanted to not be the team that went out and brought stuff back. It … it’s just how it happened. We stayed out there, and they kept going out. Food, medicine, clothes; whatever. They just came back with what we needed. So I stayed busy with stuff on the boat, cooking and fixing and working on keeping it all anchored and lashed together.”
“But sooner or later the supplies run out.”
“I guess. I mean, obviously.” Milo said with a nervous laugh. “That’s why I’m here.”
“You’re not doing bad for what you’ve had up to now.” Austin said. “For you, basically, you’re still early in the outbreak. Because you’ve had the lake. It’s good you’re out now, while you’ve got time to work it out for yourself how to deal with it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not starving. Or desperate.” Milo opened his mouth, and Austin raised a hand briefly. “I know you’re worried about Byron and the others. But you’re not down to rock bottom yet. If they turn up, or if they don’t, you’ve still got time to finish adapting and wrapping your head around how things are now. How they are ashore.”
“Guess it had to happen sooner or later.”
“We’re all lucky.” Jessica said. “If you got here, you’re lucky. I’m lucky. So’s Austin, all evidence to the contrary aside.”
“Hey, I’m lucky too.” Austin protested with a small laugh.
“Maybe you needed a little less luck than some of the rest of us.” she said, looking at him. “Mr. he-man.” she added, leaning over and murmuring as into his ear as she could reach without getting up.
“I found you. That’s lucky.” he said, bending down to breathe the words out softly.
“Technically I found you.” she told him. “You were already there when I showed up.”
“Technically I swept you off your ass, which you were on in the back yard.”
Jessica slapped at his stomach, but she couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips. She was so amused that she didn’t even let the real memories of the night she’d met him — staggering into Dennis Morris’ yard on a battered knee that could barely support her, clutching at Candice, scared out of her mind — mar the fondness of the moment she was sharing with him now. Only time and love could turn her recollection of that horrific night into something that left her even faintly amused.
“Not here.” she said before raising her voice back to include Milo again. “My point is, luck gets you here, but luck only holds for so long. The rest is up to you.”
“So I’m finding out.” Milo said, clearly choosing to ignore the exchange between her and Austin as none of his business.
/> “Step at a time.” Austin said.
“You guys keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true. You get ahead of yourself, that’s how the brain starts locking up from all the choices, all the things and problems and solutions, that come crashing in to consider. Reduce, simplify, and focus on small chunks, one after another. You just keep dealing with things, a step at a time, until it’s all dealt with and you’re through the day. Then you take a break, which you can if you handled the day right, and the next day you start again.”
“Nothing’s like it used to be.”
“It can be sort of fun sometimes though.” Austin said.
“Fun?” Jessica asked, raising an eyebrow as she poked at her hash again.
“Exciting then. Not boring at least.”
“I like boring.” Jessica said. “Boring is safe.”
“Boring has its perks. But look at it like this; we’ve got a whole world to play with now.”
“You’re digging a hole here. Zombies?”
“Okay, a whole world, minus the parts the zombies are squatting on. Still.”
“Doesn’t leave much.” Milo said.
“But enough. If you’re ready for it.”
Chapter Six — Lucky Day
Jessica stirred a little, then her eyes flicked open. Blinking a bit, she swept her gaze across the room, checking for anything that might have awoken her. No figures loomed above her, nothing with balance problems and an unhealthy appetite staggered closer; the room was quiet. The furniture barricade was still in place before the door, intact; even the cans Austin had balanced atop it after dinner last night were still there. And it was morning, there was eastern sunshine filtering in through the windows.
“Safe.” she thought, lifting her arms and stretching them out ahead of her, flexing them from fingers to shoulders to enjoy the rush of awakening muscles after sleep. Against her back and side, she felt Austin’s steady breathing as his chest rose and fell. “Another night away from home, but safe and done.”
Finishing her stretch, she blinked a few more times, then craned her head around to look up at Austin. She’d fallen asleep lying against him, on purpose; he was comfortable and warm. Even with the jacket she’d slipped on as the sun had gone down and what passed for South Florida winter brought its chill to bear, the two of them had happily snuggled up together before going to sleep.
Or, rather, she’d snuggled up to him. With him sitting with his back to the wall, right in the corner, he assured her he was quite content in that position as long as she was there. So she’d arranged herself on his right side and let his presence lull her into sleep she’d need to get up and tackle another day dealing with zombies.
When she caught sight of his face, she saw he was watching her wake up. Jessica grinned at him ruefully. “How long?”
“Just a few minutes. Feeling okay?”
“You could’ve woken me if you were up. The sun’s out.”
“It’s early. And I love watching you sleep.”
“I know. Come here.” Jessica stretched and tipped her head, and he shifted and bent so they could kiss. “Good morning.” she murmured when their lips finally parted.
“Good, but not great.” he said, putting on a mournful expression. Then he tipped his head dramatically, like it was a secret, to where Milo lay nearby, curled up against the wall beneath the windows in an almost fetal position. The Houseboater’s head was pillowed on his backpacks, and he’d pulled on a sweatshirt that had a faded sailboat marina’s logo on it.
“What, he’s the only thing stopping you?” Jessica asked impishly.
“Well that, and I didn’t pack any protection.”
She giggled and shook her head at him. “This is serious. We’re out in the wild apocalypse, not home.”
“I know, and it’s killing me.”
“You’re a big boy, you’ll just have to be patient.”
Austin grinned and made as if to run his hand down her front, but she slapped lightly at it. “Breakfast. Coffee.”
“Yes ma’am.” he said. “But I’m not moving until you do. This is the best part of my day, no contest.”
Jessica raised one hand and crooked a finger at him twice, and he bent again for another kiss. She let the enjoyable moment of contact, of the pleasant sense of being safe and with him and not faced with something dangerous, stretch out as long as she could until she finally broke it off and sat up. “Okay, I’m up.”
“Guess we should be about it then.”
“Yeah, I guess. Especially if we’re going to get back home by tomorrow.”
“She’s fine.” Austin said immediately. “She’s just as smart as you, only littler. We’ve been there for months, and there’s never been a problem. The house is secure, and she’s in it. Relax.”
“I believe you, I agree; but I’ll relax when we’re back there and the three of us are together again.”
Austin sat up from the wall and reached for his backpack. When he pulled it into his lap, the scrape of fabric across the floor, and rustle and jangling of gear in it and on his unfastened harness as he moved, caused Milo to abruptly startle and sit up.
“Morning Milo.” Austin said in a deliberately calm voice.
“It’s … oh, morning.”
“Want a cup of coffee?”
“You guys have coffee?” Milo asked, rubbing at one eye and peering at him and Jessica.
“Instant, but yes.” Austin said as he unzipped a pocket on his pack and started rummaging in it. A moment later he came out with a Ziplock bag full of brown granules. “And if we take twenty minutes or so to heat some water, it’ll even be hot.”
“I need to take a … uh, to use the bathroom.” Milo said, pushing himself to his feet. He groaned as he straightened, and stood swaying for a moment. “Oh, that hurts.”
“Yeah, yesterday, and then the floor last night.” Austin told him, unsnapping one of his harness pouches. “How about some Tylenol?”
“Thanks. To coffee and pills, thanks. But first—”
“Don’t stand on ceremony.” Jessica said, reaching for her own pack. “Go pee.”
Milo nodded, his face reddening slightly, and walked stiffly across the room to the corner facing the door barricade, where the pots were. Simply for convenience, one had been designated for bowel movements, and the other for urination. Because the first smelled a lot worse than the second. Both were covered with a piece of plastic garbage bag that had been sliced apart and used to help hold down, literally, the smell.
While Milo removed the chair that had been used to weigh down the pee pot’s cover, Jessica shifted so she was facing the window wall rather than the length of the room, and thus Milo. She had no interest in watching his back while he urinated, but she didn’t want to increase his obvious embarrassment when he turned and saw she might have been looking. Plus, when it was her turn, he was definitely going to be not looking, so it was only fair.
The soda can stoves came back out, and she and Austin each produced their canteen cups to hold the water they poured from plastic bottles. Milo rejoined them as they got the candles burning. He sat down and opened his own pack, then looked up with a frown. “I guess you guys probably have an answer to this, so I’ll just ask. Where can we get more water?”
“The easiest way will be to fill up our empties from that little pool we saw outside on our way in.” Jessica said as she pulled out a granola bar, then a silvery foil clad pack of pop tarts.
“What, the ditch?”
“It’s water, and it won’t be salt water, and it’s right there.”
He looked at her with a curious expression. “But it’s … is that safe?”
“After we filter it while filling, and dose it with some bleach, it will be.”
“Oh.”
“Step at a time.” Austin said as he selected his own breakfast, which was three granola bars and a wrinkled Snickers. “Breakfast, coffee, we’ll get out of the building, top up our bottles, and then we’ll be off.
” He started to tear open one of the granola wrappers, then stopped and tossed a small bottle to Milo. “And pills. Take two and let me have them back.”
“Thanks.” Milo said, twisting the top off. He extracted a cotton ball, then shook two white pills out into his hand. “What’s … what’s the plan for today? How should we go about this?”
Jessica frowned before she could stop herself. Then she chided herself; this was why they were out here, why she and Austin had come, but she couldn’t help it. Camping out in this classroom, rough though the conditions were, was almost peaceful compared to what they’d be back in the middle of as soon as they left the building.
Everything was better when a zombie wasn’t lunging at her face.
“Well we’ve had a look at the town.” Austin said, now tearing open his first granola bar.
“And it’s crawling.” Jessica said.
“Not entirely.”
“We were only on the edges, the perimeter, and if we’d stopped moving in most places we’d be chow or shooting our way clear. We don’t even know if they’re in there.”
“Where else would they be?” Milo asked. “I mean, they’ve gotta be in Belle Glade.”
“Well if they aren’t, and if we don’t look for them, it’s going to be up to them to come back.” Austin said as he swallowed granola. “I figure they probably are in there, one way or another.”
“How?” Jessica asked, managing to pitch her tone neutrally rather than in something more challenging.
“Well, I think it’s pretty reasonable to figure they were here.” he said, gesturing at Arcelia’s pack next to Milo. “The boat, the pack, right?”
“The bodies, the casings.” Jessica pressed.
“That probably just proves my theory.”
“Because … because if they’d gone somewhere else, they’d probably have come back.” Milo said hopefully. “That’s it, isn’t it.”
“Pretty much.” Austin said with a nod. “Whatever happened, however it happened, they came up against some zombies, and couldn’t run anywhere but into the town. That would explain why they’re still missing.”