by Joseph Zuko
“Holy shit!” Troy sat up and pulled the icepack from his forehead. “We’re fucked!” His sudden lucidity caught Karen off guard. He reapplied his ice pack, leaned back, closed his eyes and said, “I’m sleeping off this nightmare. Don’t wake me until the world is back to normal.” Karen couldn’t tell if that was Troy’s dark humor talking or his head injury.
“It certainly does seem like we are fucked,” Leon said as he finished off his glass of vodka.
“Nothing is certain.” Karen tried to keep her hopes up. She couldn’t bear the thought of raising the girls in this new world.
“In one day, a quarter of the world’s population was snuffed out. Two billion dead! That’s insanity!” Leon set down his glass and rubbed at his temples.
“We survived and we will keep on surviving if we keep our heads.” Karen stood up from the couch, “Show me how to hotwire this car.” She did not want to sit around and talk about the world’s end or dwell on facts she could not control.
“Should I make another round?” Leon asked as he stood up from his chair.
“No, I want to be able to remember how to do it.” Karen headed straight for the garage.
Leon whispered to himself as he headed to the kitchen, “Well, I need another round.” He picked the bottle up from the counter and headed to the garage.
I earned this drink.
He poured a fresh glass as he entered the garage. He set the bottle down on the hood of the Subaru. Karen was already sitting in the passenger’s seat waiting for her lesson.
Well this isn’t how I pictured this going down. Thought Leon.
He had been so excited about the idea of teaching someone his trade. He was especially excited about getting Karen alone.
Be smooth and cool. Don’t jump the gun.
We have plenty of time to let whatever this is blossom into a relationship.
Hearing that almost a quarter of the world’s populous died in one day was definitely a dick shrinking bit of info. Tonight was not a good time to try and make any kind of a move on her. Not yet anyways. The only good news he took away from that broadcast was the fact that Karen’s husband was most likely dead. If he was dead then that made Karen a widow. There was nothing hotter to Leon than a widow. He knew it was wrong, but that was part of the thrill.
Bad news for her, but good news for me.
No matter what, she was going to need to talk it out. Women loved to “Talk it out.”
She can tell me all about her feelings, right? I’ll let her talk and be a good listener. Leon had mapped out his plan for the evening. He would show her the basics of the car and then let her rant, cry or talk about her feelings. Leon opened the driver’s side door and dropped down next to Karen. He set his glass up on the dash and then turned to face her with one forearm resting on the top of the steering wheel and the other against the backrest.
His hands moved as he talked. They added extra emphasis to the peak moments, “Okay, most cars older than nineteen nineties are really easy. Look for Toyota’s especially. A lot of the models only need a flathead screwdriver, knife or scissors to be jammed into the ignition. You give it a turn and bingo you got a ride.” Leon looked over Karen’s expressions. She wasn’t listening. Her thoughts were off thinking about her mom or her husband. “You alright?” He knew the answer but couldn’t stop himself from asking the question.
Karen spoke with a dark and soft tone, “It will be a very long time before any of us are, alright.”
At a very low point in Leon’s life, and purely out of desperation to find love, he attended a seminar at a local YMCA. The subject was how to get women to fall in love with you superfast and super easy. When he arrived at the seminar, it was sparsely populated with a group of what he called “Mega Losers”. Leon looked around the gymnasium where the seminar was to take place and thought:
I’m not like these guys or like that one lesbian sitting front and center.
I’m better than this.
I can find true love all by myself.
He turned to leave the gym and hoped he could get his hundred bucks back from the front desk. Inspirational rock music filled the gym and a good looking, well-dressed man took the small stage with an infectious enthusiasm. His tanned skin screamed that he just got back from vacation somewhere hot and exotic. He sported an earpiece microphone headset.
When he spoke, it was with authority. “Gentlemen!” he noticed the lady at the front, “and lady!” He paused for a very long time and looked every one of the pathetic losers in their sad faces. “Confidence!” he held his index finger high in the air. “Confidence is rule number one! Confidence is king! Confidence is the difference between a winner and a loser and I don’t see any losers here.” He paused for extreme dramatic effect. “I see people that need to turn their confidence up to the max and take control of their lives!” He had Leon’s full attention and he took a seat at the back of the room.
The man held a clicker in his hand and he pointed to a TV screen that sat at the corner of the stage. “Look what confidence can get you.” He clicked the button and the TV flipped over to a picture of him with a beautiful woman on each arm. “Let me introduce you to Vivica and Samantha. I don’t want to get lewd or crude, but I tagged and bagged both of those ladies that night. How did I do it? How did I talk these ladies into making sweet passionate love to me and each other?” he clicked through the photos of them having an amazing night out on the town. Champagne flowed, a fancy dinner at a five star restaurant, dancing and the photos concluded with him shutting the door of a hotel room on the camera. The two ladies stood in the background and were helping each other out of their slinky black cocktail dresses. “I didn’t hypnotize them or rent them from a pimp. I showed them confidence…and they showed me…a really good time.” The crowd laughed with him as he chuckled.
Most of the seminar revolved around how to look like you possessed confidence so you could win a lady over. It was all about spending money to look richer than you were to trick them into sex in the hope that they might fall in love with you and not care that you were a broke ass loser.
That seminar flashed through Leon’s mind as he sat in the front seat next to Karen. He knew what he needed to do.
Hit her with confidence.
Make her feel safe.
“I know we are going to be okay. You know how I know this?” Leon picked up his drink and took a sip.
“How?”
“We survived today and we will keep surviving. Like you said we have to keep our heads.” He placed the glass back on the dash.
“How does that keep us from getting torn apart and turned into one of those things?” Karen asked with skepticism in her voice.
“Most of surviving is about knowing the rules, right?” She nodded at him, but wasn’t quite sure what he meant. “If you know that something is dangerous you will keep your distance and avoid it. We as a species have learned this over tens of thousands of years. Well now we know the rules. I guarantee most of the people lost today were taken down because they didn’t understand how this new world works, right?”
She nodded at him again. His picture was becoming clearer.
“Well we know what the rules are. We know what to avoid and how to deal with these… monsters. We can set up a base of operation here that will keep you and the girls safe.”
“What do you mean?” Karen’s interest was peeked.
The booze was hitting him really hard, but it only fueled his creativity. He took another sip of his glass to do his own dramatic pause, “We find a few more healthy people tomorrow that need a place to stay. They can help us guard the perimeter. We set up a sniper’s nest on the roof and get a rifle. We scavenge more supplies and build up our defenses. A day or two of hard work and we can turn this place into a Fort Knox against those infected bastards. I know we can do it. What do you think?”
He could see a slight shift in her features, “I hope so. I really hope we can do all of that, but I mostly hope that I find Jim.
The girls and I need him. Otherwise I don’t know if I will make it.”
Leon’s hurt feelings seeped out of his features. He pouted only a little but it was clear he felt unappreciated, again. It was mostly the booze affecting his emotions. Mostly.
“I wouldn’t have made it this far without you Leon. I’m grateful for all of your help, but Jim is their Daddy and the girls need their Daddy and I need him too,” Karen’s head dropped.
Leon fought hard against his raging feelings. He gave himself an internal pep talk.
Put on a brave face! Don’t let her see that the mention of Jim’s name affects you!
Stay solid buddy! Fight the good fight!
In a few days she will see how strong a man you really are!
Then she will be all like, Jim who?
Leon muscled a smile onto his face, “I’m sure we will find him tomorrow. I’m going to…find a place to crash, pour myself one last strong drink, fall asleep and recharge for tomorrow. We have a lot of work to do.” He picked up his glass, nodded good night to her and slipped out of the Subaru. He snagged the bottle, poured his drink and headed for the spare bedroom.
“Goodnight Leon. I’ll see you in the morning,” Karen called after him.
Leon gave her a thumbs up as he reentered the house. He didn’t look back at her. He just left her there in the car. All alone.
Karen took a deep breath. She felt exhausted. It was time. She had promised herself a good hard cry when she fell asleep tonight and it was time to cash in and hit the sack. Both girls should be knocked out by now. She felt like she could bust out those salty tears completely uninterrupted. It was at least a start for her mourning process. Karen knew that she wouldn’t get a chance to properly grieve over her Mama. They had too much work to get finished to keep them safe and not enough manpower or time to do it. Karen popped open the car door and drug herself out into the garage. The muscles in her legs ached as she stepped back into the house. She checked on Troy in the living room.
He winked at her and said, “I’m feeling a lot better. I’m gonna get some sleep. See you in the morning.” Troy made himself comfy on the couch.
Karen turned off the TV and all of the lights in the house.
She navigated her Mama’s bedroom in the dark. She laid her Ruger down on the night stand, pulled the covers over her fully clothed body and let the tears fall. It was the hardest cry of her life. Her pillow was quickly soaked in moisture and her nose clogged with snot. She could hardly breathe and most of her thoughts focused on how she just wanted it to be over and wished she was dead already so she could be with her Mama.
CHAPTER 14
Jim laid on the floor of Cliff and Tina’s apartment. His body ached and the hard carpeted floor gave no comfort. His very own comfortable bed sat only fifty-feet from the spot he was laying, but with the back door busted out of his place it was not safe. He wished he could talk Frank into helping him go back down to his apartment and drag his queen sized bed up the flight of stairs, but it seemed like a pointless risk for just one good night of sleep.
The living room of Cliff and Tina’s place was dark and filled with the sound of Morgan’s snores. The lady had passed out in her wheelchair with an empty beer can in her hand. Right before she conked out she had told them she was fine in the chair and that she had slept in it many times.
Devon’s vitals had been good all evening and Tina said his youth would aid in his fast recovery. He had been asleep ever since they finished stitching up his leg so they left him up on the counter.
Frank and Jim let Sara have the couch to sleep on. She had crashed minutes after her head hit the pillow. Tina had applied a fresh set of bandages to Jim’s forehead and calf before they went to bed and Cliff had given everyone a spare pillow and a blanket. Unfortunately they didn’t have anything better than the floor for them to sleep on. Jim shifted from his back to his side and then back to his back, but couldn’t get comfortable. He double and triple checked that his spear and backpack were next to him on the floor. Frank had also given Jim a good tour of his new sidearm and rifle. He felt fairly confident that he had their workings figured out. He left the handgun strapped to the back of his bag and the rifle next to his spear. Jim didn’t want to take any chances so he made damn sure that they were ready to roll in a moment’s notice. He spent a few minutes just trying to figure out which one he would grab first. The rifle or the spear. After a well fought internal battle, the spear won out by only a slight margin. Jim figured the more he used the gun the better he would feel about it, but for now if a pack of beasts busted down the door. He would have a better chance of surviving with his trusty spear than with the rifle or handgun. The odds he would miss every single headshot was too high.
Ten minutes after they shut all of the lights out and said their goodnights, Cliff and Tina started in on each other. A full day worth of pent up emotion had spilled over into their bedroom and they got to finish what Jim and his crew had interrupted earlier.
It was one hell of a wrestling match and they didn’t seem to give a fuck that there was a room full of strangers listening to them. It sounded like Cliff was wielding the powerful Hammer of Thor in there and Mjölnir was hammering out orgasms like machine gun fire.
All the sexy noise didn’t make it any easier for Jim to fall asleep. He rolled over again and covered his ears with the pillow. Jim’s eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could see Frank looking in his direction.
“Don’t get any ideas,” Frank grunted out. Jim huffed out a chuckle and then rolled over to his other shoulder. He faced the wall and stared at the nothingness of the white sheetrock. He tried to clear his mind. If he started to think about what might have happened to Karen and the girls he knew he would lose it, fall apart and start sobbing like a baby. Cliff and Tina got to their final orgasm. The windows shook and the walls creaked at the peak of Cliff and Tina’s joint sexual explosion.
“How are they going to walk tomorrow?” Frank joked. “I need a cigarette after that last one. Jesus fucking Christ.” Frank rubbed at the stubble on his chin and then he fluffed his pillow.
Jim turned his head to look back at Frank, “It sounded like they were making a porno in there. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone that hard or that long before. It kind of made me feel bad about myself, like I haven’t been doing it right all these years.”
“Tomorrow we’ll find your wife. I bet you can match the performance.”
Jim could just make out the smile on Frank’s face, “Thank you again for helping me.”
“All right, all right, you’re welcome. Now go to sleep.” Frank stretched his body, adjusted his blanket and within a few minutes he was out and snoring like a misfiring chainsaw. There was almost no rhythm to his breathing. It was unnerving to Jim. Frank must suffer from sleep apnea.
“Shit, I should have gone to sleep first.” Jim cursed the short nap he took earlier. He was never into napping. It always made that night’s sleep near impossible.
A couple of minutes of Frank’s horrible unsexy noise and Jim couldn’t take it anymore. He sat up, pulled back his blanket and got to his feet. He headed straight for the back balcony. He needed some fresh air. Jim gently slid the door open in order to not wake anyone up and stepped out into the cool night air. He gripped the rail and leaned over it to look out into the grass covered backyard of the apartment building. He could hear the shuffling sounds of the infected below but it was pitch black on this side of the unit. There was no telling how many of them were down there, but it sounded like a lot. They had wiped out most of the monsters on the way back from RS Medical, but others had appeared. There seemed to be an endless supply of infected humans. Gunfire cracked in the distance and if Jim concentrated he could hear the cries of terror on the wind.
“Someone, please save me!!!” A scared voice pleaded for help, but there was no way of knowing where it came from. No way to save them and Jim could not, would not risk his life for that stranger. Going out in the daylight was chaos. Trying to surv
ive in the dark would be impossible. The sounds of humans meeting their end made the cool spring night feel even colder. Goosebumps populated the exposed parts of Jim’s skin and he needed to get back inside. The last thing he needed now was the dreaded “Man Cold” to hit him. His broken nose tried to take in one last fresh lungful of air, but the devastated passageways of his sinuses were swollen and the foul stench of the creeps below made it even more difficult to inhale the oxygen.
He got back into his makeshift bed and a tear wiggled its way out of the ducts in his eye. He could not stop himself, his heart ached. He didn’t remember the last time he cried himself to sleep. It might have been more than a decade, maybe even two since he last fell asleep with a stream of tears racing down his face, but finally there was darkness. Jim drifted off to sleep.
BOOM! The floor of the apartment shook under Jim’s body, he jerked awake and reached for his flashlight. As he sat up he clicked the button on the Mag-Lite. The cone of bright white zipped around the room.
Frank sat up and said, “What the hell? What time is it?”
Jim’s light flashed passed the clock on the wall. “It’s three-fifteen in the morning.” Jim answered.
Sara fell off the couch and crashed to the floor, “Fuck me! What now!”
The door to Cliff and Tina’s room flung open and they raced down the hall to the living room. Cliff turned on every light switch that he passed.