by Betts, M. E.
"Yeah!" Nick shouted. "That's what I thought, bitch! Take your medicine." He turned to Fauna and Shari, beaming. "See? I'm not useless."
Fauna was staring at him, her expression one of alarm. "No, you're not useless. Dangerous, maybe, but not useless," she said. Her tone was very low, almost a growl, like a cat who's just seen something that scared the shit out of it, something it knows to be a threat.
He laughed nervously. "What're you talking about, lady?" His gaze panned to Shari, who looked confused. "Do you know what she's talking about?" Shari shook her head slowly, almost imperceptibly, eyes wide. She didn't know where Fauna was going with this, but she knew the woman well enough already to know that if she said something like that, there was a good reason.
Fauna pointed. "Nick, what's that on your arm?" His face went white, and his eyes snapped to the horseshoe-shaped marks on the outside of his upper left arm, a couple inches from the armpit . He had noticed that they were getting more discolored by the day, and had been making efforts to keep them covered. He hadn't realized that as he held the bow, he had carelessly let his sleeve creep up just high enough to see two marks, and their surrounding discoloration, peep out the edge of the sleeve. When he looked back toward Fauna, she was pointing a gun in his face.
"Fauna, let's be rational about this, okay? Keep in mind, I'm still a person, not a zombie! You don't kill people, that's what you told me! I mean, yeah, I was bit...but I'm not a zombie, am I? I survived, and I'm sure I'll be fine. For God's sake, don't shoot me!"
"I ain't gonna shoot you, at least not now. Not 'til you turn into one of them....if you turn into one of 'em. I do have to admit, I don't know what's goin' to happen to you. None of us do. But I tell you what, I'll be damned if I don't intend to take some precautions."
"How do you mean?"
"We'll keep a close eye on your condition. If it seems like..." She lowered her eyes a little, sighing. "If it seems like you ain't gonna make it, we may have to put you back in the panic room."
He looked a little relieved. He had thought she'd put him in there immediately, no questions asked. "I guess that's sensible enough," he said.
"And don't forget, Nick," Fauna said, gaze unwavering, "I'm takin' a big risk letting you have any kinda freedom. I just hope you appreciate that."
"Yeah, I understand."
"Then you'll understand if I lock you up in the barn loft at night."
"But why?" he demanded. "You girls are already safe up here! I'm not getting in here when the garage is locked up, whether I'm a zombie or not!"
"No, but I don't want to wake up one mornin' and see a zombie version of you--which is bad enough as it is, havin' to shoot you in the head--and on top of that, find one of my horses dead. Those horses, they're invaluable sources of transportation in a world fulla jammed roads and crashes everywhere."
"They eat animals?" he asked dubiously.
"Well, one of mine got bit. Go have a look for yourself, if you don't believe me. It don't seem no worse for the wear, but I don't assume that to mean that animals'll always be so lucky. I guess the horse is a test subject now, same as you. We'll see what happens when someone, animal or human, gets bit with a non-lethal injury. I don't like to think of you as a test subject, but this is a world fulla unknowns, and any information is useful," she said, looking him squarely in the eye, "even if we don't like the source of that information. You follow? I truly hope you're gonna be okay, Nick. You're a human bein', and I care about you. But we just don't know yet. We don't know what this bite'll do to you, and it's best we all prepare ourselves for the possibilities as early on as possible. To be honest with you, I feel I should beat your ass for hidin' that bite from us for this long. You put us in undue jeopardy, but I don't really feel like holding a grudge. Ain't no point, and I guess I can understand your apprehension."
"See, Nick?" Shari said. "You can't say we're not understanding or that we don't care." He nodded slightly, head down.
Fauna closed her eyes, breathing in deeply. "I'm exhausted," she said, exhaling. "Let's get you back to the barn. I need some rest."
It was one week later, and the three of them were all coming to terms with the fact that Nick was not getting any better. Fauna's horse seemed to be doing fine, and the wound was even healing. Nick, on the other hand, wasn't faring so well. The discoloration on his arm was getting more gruesome, and his energy was getting to be more depleted with each passing day. It had been a little over a week since he had been bitten, from the account he had given the morning after Fauna had discovered the bites."Remember those zombies that Shari pinned to the ground with arrows last week? One of 'em got an arrow to the gut, the other in the leg, and I went out with the sledgehammer, remember? You girls saw me fall, and I told you I was okay. But I didn't just fall, one of those fuckers pulled me down when I wasn't expecting it. Caught me off-guard. I didn't even feel it when it bit me...I didn't notice it 'til later. So technically, I wasn't lying when I yelled back that I was okay. I just didn't realize it yet. I remember looking into that zombie's face. It was a plain-looking middle-aged woman. Didn't look like anything special, no one you'd ever remember when the world was still normal. And I looked into that cunt's face, and I thought, You? You're what might do me in? Some forty-something who I never would've given a second glance if it weren't for this fucking apocalypse?" He sneered, snickering. "I know it's a little sick, but I gotta say...it felt good to bring that sledgehammer down onto her face."
A week later, he was well into the process of unraveling...unraveling both physically and mentally. He had been talking to himself for a couple of days, at least when he was alone. When he heard Fauna or Shari coming, he pulled himself together enough to hide the state he was in.
It was Sunday morning, a couple hours before dawn. He had been sitting up all night, absent-mindedly caressing the four-inch-long shard of glass he had found. He was arguing with the voice that had menaced him all night long.
You know those bitches are a threat to you, right? You've known it since your first night here. You said it yourself--"They're going to be the death of me."
"Yeah, I know," he said, sweating and delirious. "I want to get out of here. But what the fuck do you suggest I do?" His eyes darted back and forth around the loft, as if looking in vain for the source of the voice.
Well, you're a man, aren't you? It should be easy enough to put those bitches in their place.
"You don't get it. Those girls, they can handle themselves. What is it you expect me to do?" He jabbed the air with the piece of glass as if it were a knife, laughing maniacally. "Stab them to death?"
The voice was quiet for some time. Nick laid down on the air mattress, and was almost asleep when he heard the voice whisper, almost inaudibly.
There's another way out of here.
Fauna had begun the nightly habit of closing the overhead garage-style door over the doorway leading from the barn out to the corral, and locking it from the outside. There was another door on the opposite side of the barn, this one a regular-sized door, that she kept locked with a padlock. Nick sat straight up.
"What do you mean, another way out of here?"
That window over there.
Nick looked up, puzzled. The window sat ten feet above the floor of the loft.
"Dude, how am I supposed to get up there? And on top of that, it's easily thirty feet off the ground from the outside." He shook his head, scowling at his unseen companion. "I don't know what you expect me to do with that."
There's a rope ladder going to the first floor, right?
Nick sat for a moment, thinking intently.
"I don't know if I have the energy for any of this. I don't feel so good lately."
Then time's a-wastin'.
Shari had awoken around six. She had tried going back to sleep, but after half an hour she knew it was a lost cause. She finally relented and got out of bed, starting some coffee. She did her grooming while she waited for her coffee to finish, then poured a cup and went out to the b
alcony, book in hand. She had been reading for about an hour when she heard Fauna shuffling around inside. She joined Shari out on the balcony, carrying a cup of coffee. "Mornin', ma'am," she said sleepily.
"Good morning," Shari replied. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah," Fauna said with a laugh. "As well as one can with one eye open. I keep wonderin' if Nick is gonna turn overnight. Can't stop thinkin' about it. That man is knockin' at heaven's door, ain't he?"
Or Hell's, Shari thought bitterly. "Yeah, he looks like shit," she concurred. "And I think he's starting to slip a little, mentally...he was pretty incoherent yesterday. And I could swear I heard him last night out in the barn, laughing like a hyena. Scared the shit out of me, to be honest."
"Yeah, I thought I heard that, too. Hard to tell if it's the sickness doin' it to him, or if it's just the way he's always been. Seems like he's the type to be a little unhinged regardless of circumstances, if you ask me." She sipped her coffee. "I guess we should go check on him, after we finish our coffee. I got a feelin' it's time to put that boy back in the panic room. I don't feel safe even keepin' him in the barn no more."
Shari took the last sip of coffee from her mug. "Ready when you are."
Fauna knew immediately something was wrong as they entered the barn. "It's dead quiet in here," she whispered. "And where the hell is the ladder?""Nick!" Shari called.
"Nick!" Fauna sighed, shaking her head. "I don't have a good feeling about this. We gotta be careful. God knows what he's up to. Let's have a thorough look around down here, make sure his dumb ass ain't hidin' somewhere, or layin' dead." They looked through the two storage closets, all around on the floor in case he had fallen. There was no sign of him anywhere on the ground floor.
"Do you have another ladder?" Shari asked.
"Yeah, out in the garage. I'll need your help carryin' it over here. And I don't think I have to tell you again...we need to be careful." Shari nodded and they started for the garage, looking around as they went.
"I knew we couldn't trust him," Shari said.
"Yeah, and I never argued with you. We just didn't have a legitimate reason to lock him up. Not 'til now. Who knows? Maybe he took off. He was obviously dyin', maybe he wanted to try and make it to his family again, see about sayin' goodbye. Might've figured he had nothin' to lose."
"Yeah, somehow I don't think we'll be so lucky," Shari said, looking around nervously. "His car's still there, and I can't see why he'd go out on foot. He's here somewhere, most likely hellbent on fucking our world up."
"It's a strong possibility," Fauna replied in a neutral tone. "I wouldn't put it past him."
They reached the garage, which Fauna had locked on their way out. She took out her set of keys and unlocked the overhead door, opened it, and walked over to the ladder. She took one side, and motioned for Shari to take the other. Fauna locked the door again behind them, and they carried the ladder over to the barn. They went in through the large overhead door that led from the corral to the inside of the barn, and set the ladder against the wall, where Nick had taken the rope ladder from. Fauna took out her gun, flipped the switch for the overhead loft light, and carefully climbed up. She stepped up into the loft, looking around slowly.
"He ain't up here," she said. She was quiet for a moment. "That crazy son of a bitch," she whispered.
"What?" called Shari from below.
"Window's open. He took that ladder and went out the window. As in, the window that sits thirty feet from the ground. That boy somehow got that rope ladder up to that window and climbed it. The bottom of that ladder, though, it couldn't possibly reach the ground. Means he had to drop...what? 'Bout fifteen feet or so." She descended the ladder, and the two of them went outside and around to the back of the barn, gazing up. Fauna had been about right. The bottom of the ladder dangled about fifteen feet above the ground.
"Motherfucker," Fauna spat. "I don't know what he hopes to accomplish with this stunt, puttin' us in danger for no good reason." She started toward the garage.
"I don't think he had the mental capacity left to think much of anything," Shari said as she followed behind her. "What are we going to do?"
"Well, for now we're gonna go back up to the loft. He can't get to us up there. I expect we'll see him anytime now, amblin' up to us all ghoulified. And then we're gonna take that dumb motherfucker down. Wouldn't be surprised if that fall did him in. Either way, even if he is alive, we'll be safe from him up in the loft." She took out her keys, unlocking the door. "And neither one of us, under any circumstances, goes out alone until he's accounted for. You understand me?"
Shari nodded. "But if he doesn't show his face, we're gonna have to go out and look for him at some point, right? If he's alive, we can't just have him out there somewhere, menacing us until...God knows when."
Fauna shrugged. "Yeah, we ain't got a choice. But for now, let's go ahead and go on upstairs, think this over. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll get a glimpse of him from up on the balcony. Besides, I'm hungry. I need to get me some breakfast before we go hunt this asshole down."
They had grabbed some protein bars from the loft kitchen, briefly discussed what they should do, and gone out to the balcony to survey the surrounding area. "Maybe he went in the house," Shari said.
"Unlikely. Me and Mitchell had set up alarms in there. If Nick or a zombie or anyone else was in there, the monitors in the garage woulda alerted us. All three horses are accounted for, and so are the cars. He couldn't have gotten too far, and he ain't in the house. Couldn't have gotten into the garage. We can check the sheds and the woods, I guess. Make sure he ain't in one of the cars. Other than that, I can't imagine where he coulda gone."
"Well," Shari said, "I guess our work is cut out for us."
They climbed down from the loft. Fauna was carrying a .357 revolver, and Shari had her bow and a taser. Fauna locked up behind them as they left like always. They checked the cars, first Shari's, then Nick's own. There was no sign of him. They had even looked underneath the cars before getting up close.
"Alright, there's two sheds out back. I keep 'em locked up, but he coulda broke into one, and they both got windows he coulda gotten in through. Now, one's where we used to do our butcherin'. That means we gotta be extra careful in there...lotsa sharp implements for him to get into. We'll check that one first, then the storage shed."
Neither shed showed any signs of forced entry, but Fauna unlocked them anyway. They did a thorough search of both buildings, locking them up again as they exited.
"Well," Fauna said with a sigh, "that leaves the woods."
"Then let's get to it," Shari replied through gritted teeth. I knew that asshole would mean trouble for us, said the embittered voice deep in Shari's consciousness, the one getting quite comfortable in her head. I knew it from the time he showed up here. I tried to like him, but he's the type that you just know, from the time you meet him, you KNOW he can't be trusted. He can't help but to be a fuck-up.
"I guess we should start near the barn, work our way north," Fauna said. Shari nodded in agreement.
They entered the narrow stretch of woods, a dense band of deciduous trees sparkling with the vibrant green of new spring growth. They stayed mostly back-to-back, Fauna pointing her gun, Shari her bow. Although the wooded area stretched from south to north across the length of the property, its narrow form made quick work of the search. They were about halfway through when they heard the unmistakable sound of twigs snapping beneath the weight of a bipedal tread. Snap, snnnap...snap, snnnap... Both women turned in the direction of the sound. "Nick?" Fauna called out, and at once a figure pounced in their direction. Shari nocked an arrow and aimed for the leg, pinning the assailant back and to the ground. They quickly realized it wasn't Nick, just some unfortunate, random bite-victim-turned-zombie...a young man whom, it would appear, had been quite handsome before his tragic fate. Fauna took a survival knife from her hip holster, plunging it into the eye socket and rendering the undead man inert. She reached down to pry out the knife
, which she did with some difficulty, levering it back and forth. It made a wet, cracking sound as she freed it. The two walked on, continuing northward.
"You know, it's a shame," Shari said after a moment. "We have a man show up to stay with us, and it has to be Nick. The type of slimy douchebag I probably wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot pole even before the apocalypse."
"I don't know," Fauna said. "I was just getting to like him, myself."
"Nah," Shari said, shaking her head. "He was just pandering to us. Trying to get on our good sides. He really thought that if he won us over, he'd get to be the alpha dog. I don't think there was any sincerity in the fucker, personally. Maybe that's just my cynical nature running amok in this new world we're in, but I like to think I'm pretty fair-minded. And don't get it wrong, I'm not some militant man-hater. Most men, I've gotten along with pretty well. Most of my friends have always been male. But something about him...it's like you said, he was a livewire. He had it written all over him. He came here for the sole purpose of making our lives more complicated,and more dangerous."
"Is that a fact?" came a voice from somewhere above. Nick's voice. "You know, I never liked you bitches either." He snorted. "You never wanted to let me into the loft...you two must have been dykin' it out in there or something. And now you're about to wish you'd just let the man wear the pants, the way it's supposed to be."
Fauna's gun was pointed in the direction of his voice, and Shari followed suit. She knew Fauna was the one with the survival training and the hunting experience, so she figured if Fauna had located the direction Nick's voice was coming from, she'd trust her. They heard another sound. Click. The unmistakable sound of a hammer being pulled back.
"Gun!" Fauna cried, pushing Shari. Shari did the best tuck and roll she could manage, avoiding the gunfire being issued from the lower limb of a tree about twenty feet away, which dashed into the ground where she had just been standing, knocking up a plume of dirt. Her amateur maneuver had spared her a bullet, but had knocked the wind out her. Not quite like in the movies, eh princess? that inner voice teased. Fauna took out her .357 magnum and fired back. She struck him in the gut, and he fell the twelve feet between the limb and the ground. His .38 revolver fell about five feet away from him, and Fauna easily made it there before he could drag himself over. Shari came up beside her, pointing her bow at Nick's head. He moaned on the ground, looking in shock at the rather sizeable wound in his abdomen. He clutched around the hole, and the intestined bulged slightly between his fingers. Tears flowed down his cheeks.