Zombpocalypse (Book 1): Contingency

by Mariah Lynde

  It took less than a minute to really get dressed. Quite honestly, a pair of Stewie Griffin lounge shorts with a t-shirt depicting him and Brian, were about as close as I was going to get to a full matching outfit tonight anyway. Wrapping my towel around my head and twisting the fabric to create a turban for my dripping wet hair, I stepped out into my bedroom. Thankfully, Cal was nowhere to be seen so I walked over towards my closet to grab my cell off the dresser just beside it and then make my way out of the room.

  Making my way into the open area that served as my combined living and dining room area, I found Cal Mitty sitting on my couch staring blankly at the boxes of supplies stacked in front of him. I suppose I couldn’t blame him much, he had in no way spent his time since the lobby preparing for what could be in the future. Seeing someone else’s preparations and having to accept just what was happening to the world around you, might not have been the most calming experience in the world.

  Clearing my throat to make my presence known, Cal’s attention rapidly changed from the stack of supplies in front of him to me. His reaction could almost be considered priceless. Not that I blamed him, the poor man had probably never seen a woman exit a bathroom with anything less than perfect makeup and a stunning outfit to accompany it. Then again, that could just be my inner bitch talking.

  His eyebrow shot straight up in an almost comical fashion and I glared back in what I hoped could be seen as a lack of amusement.

  “What?” I barked out, moving to pad barefoot into the room and past him towards the kitchen.

  “I was thinking that shirt is highly…insulting considering where you live?” He answered in a tone that wavered slightly. Whether that was amusement or discomfort, I really couldn’t tell.

  “You mean, North Carolina? Nah, I tend to think it’s geared more towards…West Virginia. Although to be honest, some places in this state make me think it’s more than appropriate here too.” To give credit where credit was due, he was kind of right. I mean the shirt I was wearing did depict Stewie Griffin with Brian in a canoe. While that might seem harmless, it happened to be the words underneath that would be an issue.

  Any one from a state south of the Mason-Dixon line would probably be insulted by seeing the words ‘Keep Paddling, I hear Banjoes’ on anything. Still, people could only be insulted if there happened to be a slight ring of truth to it. Making my way to the stove, I turned the burner back on, my long forgotten attempt at dinner still in need of attention.

  Turning towards the living room, I gasped as I slammed face first into a wide chest. Immediately, I jumped back and glared at Cal with one hand coming up to wave at him, “Oi! Personal bubble. Remember it.”

  “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

  “I know…just…keep a couple of steps between us. In case you haven’t noticed I’m a little jumpy today.” I grumbled out. Although, I have to say that the idea of Cal getting too close to me again and giving me the opportunity to punch him did have its own special brand of appeal.

  Rolling my eyes in frustration, I moved past him to the small closet in the corner of the kitchen. Opening the door and kneeling down to push my hand down on the center of the tile that hid the entrance under the floor.

  “What are you doing?” His voice came from over my shoulder and had me smirking a little as I turned to meet his gaze.

  “Just goin’ to talk to a couple of people.” I went from smirking to delivering a full on evil grin. As expected, Cal stumbled back with his eyes widening as if he were witnessing some horror akin to finding Freddy Krueger in his closet.

  “Miss Warren…are you sure you’re feeling alright?” Watching as he crept closer to me, I could see what he happened to be thinking. I’ll admit, in an effort to mess with him as much as possible, I happened to be feeding in to his discomfort by making him think my cheese had slid off my cracker sometime in the last twenty-four hours.

  “I’m peachy.” Grinning, I heard the soft click as the trap door popped up. Moving to pull it upward, I turned a little, moving to step down onto the stairs, “Well, come on then. You just going to stand there or you ready to meet more of the group?”

  “What group?”

  “You asked me about my plan…I told you there were others like me. So, come meet them.” I smiled slightly.

  “Are you about to take me down in some weird, creepy basement that will become my tomb?” His question held a very real note of fear. That tremor happened to be obvious enough that I was pausing mid-step to peer over at him. Gray eyes stared back at me with obvious distrust and incredulity.

  “If that were the case, do you honestly think I’d be taking the time to ask you to follow me down here? Look, come down, or don’t but if you’re going to stay up here, try and keep the noise down.” Unwilling to give him any more opportunity to distract me, I shook my head and descended into the room below.

  Chapter Twenty-One –Awkward Pauses

  Making my way down into my little nerd cave, I did my best not to think about the man who remained upstairs in the kitchen. There were bigger fish to fry. Robbie would be calling either my house phone or cell at any second, so getting on the Skype call was my number one priority

  As I stepped down onto the solid floor, my fingers moved to the wall and flipping the switch to send a dull glow permeating out around the room. Moving swiftly, I crossed the room to flop down in the chair settled in front of my desk. Practiced fingers moved to press the power button on the CPU tower, leaving the soft hum of spinning gears and fans to fill the silence while I waited for the display to light up once more.

  The second that the screen lit up, one hand was already on the mouse to click on the icon for Skype. Typing in my password, the soft groaning sound that indicated I was online had barely finished before it had been replaced by the ringing of a call coming in.

  “What the hell?” I heard Cal say from behind me.

  “Welcome to the Nerd Cave. Just don’t move anything and you should be fine.” I chuckled just before I clicked on the small green icon of a phone to accept the incoming call.

  “What…is this?” Cal’s voice rang with confusion even as I heard him plop down in the chair across from me. Turning, I grabbed the remote to the T.V. set up on one of the shelves lining the back wall of the room and tossed it to him. Without missing a beat I turned back to the screen just in time to hear a chorus of hello’s while my guest freaked out, “Jesus!”

  “So she did bring him into the Batcave!” Brandon exclaimed, which was followed by a chorus of chuckles from the rest of the group.

  “Damn it, Robbie!” Muttering softly, I flopped back in my chair. I glared at my computer as if that would actually make my point for me.

  “Oh, come on, Angel. You gotta admit, this whole thing is kinda funny. Normally, you’re locked up in there all alone like a nun in a rectory. I’m kinda relieved to know you aren’t a female Hannibal the Cannibal, if you know what I mean.” Rolling my eyes as Canadian Dave put in his two cents I was surprised by the next voice that chimed in.

  “Ya’ll leave her alone.” It pleased me to hear the voice of one of the people that had been absent from our call the night before. Johnny T., as we called him, had traversed with us from game to game, but his inability to sit still or wait, had never lent itself to having him stick around when the rest of us got tied up with other things. While it could be said that he wasn’t technically a permanent part of our circle, he certainly was an important part of it. Even while I pondered those thoughts he continued, “Don’t you listen to them, Angel. You do you, boo-boo.”

  No matter how highly irritated I may have been, those words elicited a laugh that could not be contained. Now, I’m southern born and bred, but Johnny…well, he was a transplant. A New Yorker by birth, he’d ended up down here in the south and never left. While you would think that we’d hold that against him, he shared a certain few traits with Robbie and I that endeared him to us.

  Of course, there was also the fact that he was a couple of
French fries short of a happy meal…but in a good way. You never knew what might happen with Johnny along for the ride. That said, I can tell you all things that did take place in his company were entertaining as all hell.

  No matter how bad of a day a person may have experienced, after fifteen minutes of time in Johnny’s company you’d find yourself laughing so hard that your sides hurt. Admittedly, sometimes it could seem almost like you were dealing with the equivalent of a Tasmanian Devil on speed and caffeine, but in the end it always turned out to be well worth it.

  “I always do, sweety.” Laughing softly, I leaned back in the chair, spinning it just enough to look over at Cal, “Go ahead and say hi to the crew.”

  “The crew? Isn’t that a little presumptuous?” He groused as she flipped through the channels on the television before looking over at me. My look must have said it all because he gave a long suffering sigh and called out, “Hello everyone that is part of Miss Warren’s crew.”

  That last word with its bite of snarkiness had me opening my mouth to snap at him once again. Sadly, I lost my opportunity as the others honed in on the fresh meat.

  “Woo hoohoo, look who thinks he’s all that.” This came from Brandon, although it shouldn’t have surprised me, he liked keeping a monopoly on his prickly, self-sufficient asshole title.

  “Damn, Angel done picked herself up a spooner.” Jay offered with a chuckle and a healthy amount of distaste.

  “Guy sounds like an asshole, she should get rid of him.” Mack chimed in from Ray’s mic.

  “C’mon, guys. Go easy on him. Yeah, I got stuck with him for tonight, but it’s only temporary.” I began to speak and the answering sounds from the other side of the screen were enough to make me wish I hadn’t.

  “What do you mean?”

  “How come?”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Did he get bit?”

  To say that I had been met with a cacophony of noise would have been generous. Every time I tried to cut in someone else was ringing in with a new question or shouting to talk over me.

  “No, I mean, he wasn’t bit…I…”

  Again, there was a flurry of sound as everyone and their mother tried to speak. Each dropped phrase and word made my head start to ache. My temples began to throb while my ears started ringing with the high pitched tone that always seemed to follow the squeal of feedback heard from one of the microphones over an open channel.

  From over my shoulder I watched Cal lean forward with an exasperated sigh. Not that I could blame him, my crew and I were always kind of chaotic. Even on our best days there were times when dealing with one another could be like pulling teeth or delving through a desert to try and pick up one single grain of discolored sand. As horrible as that sounds at least I’ve always been truthful about it.

  Somewhat embarrassed that Cal happened to be witnessing said chaos, I shifted forward in my seat and turned to move closer to the monitor. Why I thought this would be an effective method to silence the rapidly devolving conversation and stop Cal from being privy to it, I don’t know. Still, I tried, only to find my chair suddenly pulled back from the desk while my ‘guest’ leaned forward and shouted into the microphone.

  “If you people would calm the hell down, I’m sure Miss Warren here would answer your questions.” All I could do was stare as Cal stood in front of me, bent forward and yelling into the microphone with his, ‘I’m the boss’ voice. I have to admit, even I kind of stopped moving or even attempting to speak as he intervened - so his next words kind of left me staring at him blankly for the next few seconds, “No wonder things are so insane. You people need to take a breath and simmer down. My god, there is a point to coordination and patience. Now, why don’t you start with one person asking a question and wait for her to answer before the next person jumps in.”

  Staring at Cal in a mixture of profound embarrassment and astonishment, I could only shake my head silently. In years…and I do mean years, of online gaming, no one had ever commanded silence like that. Sure, Robbie had exploded in anger a few times and caused an uncomfortable silence that one would expect for a socially awkward moment, but this was different.

  I cannot tell you what it was about Cal Mitty, but no one could deny that he commanded respect. True, when he happened to be acting like an insufferable ass I wanted to do nothing more than throttle him. However, times like this made it clear just how he had gotten where he had in his life. When it came down to it and the situation called for a firm hand to guide things along the way, this was a man who could get it done.

  Sadly, his intervention now had the others in our little group call silenced while he looked at me expectantly. Waving my arms a little, my lips pressed into a frown while I flailed and mouthed the words, ‘what do you want me to do’?

  When it became obvious that I had no idea what exactly it was he wanted me to do, I found my chair suddenly pushed forward. With no time to react, I had already been settled in front of the computer as I stared at Cal blankly until he pointed to the screen. Shrugging my shoulders I just waited to see if he had any input about things before he gave an exasperated sigh and spoke for me, “She’s here, why don’t we start with Robbie?”

  Despite the fact they had all just been given the go ahead, for several moments the call remained dead silent. If we’d all been in a room together I am sure there would have been several cautious glances back and forth before anyone dared to utter a word. Still, his choice for the first one to speak had been a good one, and I had to wonder if that was by design or just pure luck.

  “Okay, so what the hell happened that you passed out?” Again, I shouldn’t have been surprised. My best friend could be considered as blunt as they came.

  “Just…lost it I guess.”

  “You… just…lost it? What the hell, Angel? You handled almost the exact same thing as you did last night! What was there to lose it about?” Robbie called out and made me wince as my speakers squeaked with the feedback of sound.

  “Ow.” I mutter and Cal looked down at me sheepishly. In that moment, I realized he’d used Robbie to set me up and responded in kind, “Oh, you bastard, you didn’t really tell him anything did you?” Fully forgetting that other people could hear what I was saying.

  “I told him…”

  “Hey! Don’t blame him. When he told me you were covered in zombie goop when he found you we all just assumed you’d had a run in with one and he was at your house waiting for you when you got home. But you’re telling me the zombie was there?! At your place?! And you shot the man for going to help you?” You could always tell how Robbie took certain bits of information by the sound of his voice. In a situation like this where each word seemed to pitch a little bit higher while the actual notes grated out, meant he was rapidly growing irritated, concerned, and exasperated.

  “Sorry.” Muttering softly and hoping I sounded a little apologetic before I continued, “Yes, the zombie in question happened to be just outside my duplex. I heard it outside while I was in the kitchen trying to make dinner, since it would be rude to have a guest and let them starve.” I glared at Cal angrily. The promise in my eyes had nothing to do with intimacy and everything to do with cold, hard vengeance.

  “Okay…explain.” Robbie’s voice held a firm note that reminded me way too much of how parents talk to their children, so I snapped back.

  “One question per person, remember.” My eyes remained locked on Cal. I couldn’t help but associate him with the current upheaval taking place. It was a rare occurrence indeed when Robbie and I actually got irritated with one another, yet…two days in a row I’d encountered Cal Mitty and on both days, I ended up arguing with one of the only people I virtually never even got antsy with.

  “Nice try, but you still haven’t answered my initial question. You can save yourself a whole lot of grief if you just explain it all now.” I could tell that Robbie wouldn’t be letting this go. Sighing as I sat back in my chair, I turned my gaze away from Cal.

  “Tha
nks so much.” I hissed over at the male in question. Funnily enough, all he did was raise his hands in a motion similar to surrender. Something completely at odds with his commanding presence a few minutes earlier and one that made me want to shoot him for real this time.

  “Focus, Angel. I swear to god, do not make me drive up there to beat it out of you.” While the threat sounded bad, everyone knew if Robbie made his way up here, the likelihood of him doing anything other more than giving me a verbal thrashing would not happen. Everyone, including me, knew he just happened to be worried and upset. Still, the way he said it carried a tone that didn’t normally exist, as if we were at odds and that worried me.

  “As if.” I snorted and sighed, “You also couldn’t drive up here if you wanted to. Things are getting real here in zombie central – it is definitely not some place you want to be.” I answered before I closed my eyes and struggled with trying to figure out just where to begin.

  “So, explain.” Robbie said impatiently and I frowned. Hearing the tone of my best friend’s voice, I knew exactly what he was doing. In forcing me to talk now, I had no chance of thinking about how to word things to lessen their impact. It meant any chance I had of filtering my words to describe the events of the day had been eradicated. That meant they would all get the pure, unvarnished truth.

  “Fine, fine.” Blowing a makeshift raspberry past my lips as I leaned back in my chair, tilting my head back before throwing my arm over my eyes as I decided on just where to start my story, “Well, I went out to the stores like we all planned and when I got home I decided it would be wise to go and have a little practice.”

  “At what?” There was no mistaking the almost curious tone of Brandon’s voice. Not that I could blame him, outside of the computer, we all knew so very little about one another.

  “Archery.” Keeping my reply simple, I drew in a breath just to be cut off by Johnny T.

  “You mean you bought a crossbow to go all, Daryl Dixon?” He gave a soft chuckle and I couldn’t help but blush a little as the others in the call joined in. The man just off to my right also snickered and immediately drew my attention as my head whipped to the side.