“Jack, do you think you can hit that one from here?” I asked never taking my eyes off his cold stare.
“Hit what?” Terry asked right in my ear.
I looked up at Terry with a white hot fire in my eyes due to the uncomfortable proximity of his face to mine.
Jack intervened just in time, and took the binoculars off from around Terry’s neck and looked up the street to where I was just looking.
“Hit what?” he asked.
“Dark hair, black jacket…looks like a rock star.”
Jack shook his head and handed the binoculars back to me. I looked quickly back to where I had seen him, and he was gone. Well, that was creepy. I thought.
“Do you have any other security measures in place?” I asked looking at the flimsy wooden arm that was designed to keep polite paying customers from entering the parking lot before they coughed up payment.
“We have a couple of guns,” Jimmy said proudly.
“A couple,” I said with a raised eyebrow. “As in two?”
Once he realized the ridiculousness of their small armory, he bowed his head.
“We almost always have someone with a gun guarding this post,” Joey said casually.
“Almost always…?” I asked with an are you fucking serious tone to my voice.
Joey answered by calling someone else on the radio and requesting an armed guard at “Gate one!”
“Do you have anywhere you can take these people that’s safe?” I asked in the most caring tone I could muster.
“We’re safe here,” a familiar sounding voice said from the manager’s office window. I turned my head, and was absolutely floored by who I saw.
“Bob!” I said throwing on a plastic grin. Internally, I said ‘Oh shit.’
You remember the guy from my office who looked like cancer, and was a pathetic excuse for a sociopath? Yeah, this was that Bob.
“Hey, Jeffrey,” he said, plastering his own version of a smile on his face. “What are you doing here?”
“You know this guy?” Jack asked.
“He’s a friend of mine from work,” I said forcing the word friend out through my mouth even though it just didn’t want to come out.
“Yeah, we worked together for four or five years,” Bob said with that same artificial smile that he was never very good at. “Come on inside.”
We sat inside his office, and one look around told me everything I needed to know. Bob was a royal asshole who just wanted to rule. Everything that once belonged to the previous manager was gone, and there were drawings of Bob everywhere. Really awful ones. They looked like he commissioned the old caricature artist from the zoo to do a series of depictions of good ol’ Bob. In one, he was fighting off an army of zombies all by himself. In another drawing, he was on his knee teaching children something very important. It was reminiscent of paintings of Jesus I have seen in hospitals. He was trying to create an artificial history for himself. It couldn’t have been more pathetic.
“How did you end up here?” I asked genuinely curious as to how a pitiful social pariah found his way from sympathy fucks to being the leader of the largest band of survivors I’ve seen since the zombies began their reign as dominant species on the food chain.
“The day after the government fell, I was in my house fighting off a constant barrage of zombies…” He began.
Already I call bullshit.
“I was running low on ammo, and there were just too many to fight. So I ran.”
Okay, running seems like the only true part to that story.
“The streets were overrun, and every place I went got overtaken by those things. I was tired, and hungry, and I hadn’t had water in days. I fought zombies off with my bare hands as I made my way through the woods. I stumbled here and didn’t even think I could make it in. I was exhausted and weak, and I passed out about ten yards from the front of the zoo.”
“I found him and brought him in,” Joey added excitedly. “He passed out at the end of my guard shift. If he had been just ten minutes later, we wouldn’t have found him at all. The zombies would have gotten him!”
“I bet,” I said feigning astonishment. “Good thing he made it here on time.”
The picture was becoming clearer and clearer. I could just imagine Bob waiting in the bushes for his chance to put on a real dramatic show of passing out.
“I could barely walk on my own,” Bob said looking reflectively out the window.
“It’s true,” Joey added. “He was out of commission for weeks. We kept bringing him food and water until he was able to get up on his own.
This asshole put on a pathetic display and then gets pampered for two weeks. The zombie apocalypse is happening, and he cons people into bringing him breakfast in bed.
“Then, I joined the group. We all took on specific duties. Because I worked at a soup kitchen making food for the homeless, I took over as head of the kitchen staff.”
If you believe he worked in a soup kitchen, please stop reading my journal and go find a coloring book more suited to your level of intelligence.
“It’s a good thing you wound up here,” I said.
“Zachary made sure everyone had a place,” Joey said bowing his head.
“Zachary?” I asked looking for more information.
“He was in charge before Bob. “
“He was a good man,” Bob said, trying to mirror Joey’s sadness.
“How did he die?” I asked looking at the imperfect display of emotion from Bob.
“We don’t know,” Joey said. “It was a sudden illness. He was fine one day, and then the next he was complaining of stomach aches and chest pain. He deteriorated quickly.”
“I spent his final days with him trying to nurse him back to health. I gave him chicken broth and gatorade to try and keep his strength up, but in the end…” Bob bowed his head again in a pathetic attempt to look sad.
It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out what good ol’ Bob did here. Not only did he take out and replace the leader of this band of misfits, but he has them respecting him as some sort of leader himself.
“Well, it’s great that you were able to take over,” I said.
“One of Zachary’s final requests,” Bob nearly cried.
“I bet,” I said never losing eye contact with him. “Especially since you have such a dangerous threat heading this way.” I then added. Bob’s face froze.
“That’s why I was bringing them to you,” Joey said with panic causing his feet to shuffle slightly.
“Who?! Why?!” Bob demanded.
So Jack and I told Bob the story of Axel and what he had heard about the impending attack. His expressions fluctuated from terror to shitting-his-pants panic as we told him of the well-armed and highly populated army that was planning an attack for Friday. Once we finished our tale, Bob went to the window to look out at the survivors that had amassed at this refuge, and he thought long and hard about the approaching army.
“Give me a gun,” he said, turning back to us. “I’ll head out and find this army and try to negotiate with this Axel.”
Bullshit. I thought. You want to abandon this place and its people under the guise of you being some sort of brave leader. I wasn’t about to let that happen.
“We can’t let you do that, Bob. It’s a suicide mission. Besides, you don’t even know what direction they are coming from. The chances of you actually finding them are slim.”
“He’s got a point, Bob,” Joey chimed in.
“We have to get the women and children to safety,” Jack said with genuine concern.
“Why don’t we all get to safety?” Bob said. “Let’s just give them the zoo. It’s not worth losing any lives for.”
“He will not stop tracking you,” Jack said. “He wants your women too. We have to stand our ground and try to fight them off.”
“Yeah!” Joey said with a passion I had yet to see from the tubby man.
I walked to the window to see if I could spot anything that
might act as a strategic stronghold for us to use as our base of operations. I saw the lion display which was an enormous enclosed area with high walls and a moat that encircled the entire exhibit. The lions had a massive structure in the center of their island that looked like it was the offices for the team that took care of the lions. It appeared sturdy.
“What about the lion exhibit?” I asked. “Could we move people there?”
“What about the lions?” Joey asked. “We can’t move them.”
“The lions are still here?!” I asked astonished.
“Where else would they go?” Joey said.
“I just thought with no handlers…”
“The handlers are all still here. We haven’t lost any animals since the outbreak,” Joey was beaming. “We’re like Noah’s ark.”
“Now, this is going to take some planning, and we only have a day,” I started. Then I looked out the window and saw exactly what I came here for. I spun around and looked at the group in the room.
“I’ll be right back. Jack, can you and Terry go through the guns and see how many we have, how many rounds, and find out how many people we might have that know how to use them.”
“Uh…Sure.” he answered. “Where are you going?”
“I just need to check something out. I’ll be right back.”
Bob began some protest about me running around his people, but I walked past him determined to do what I came here for. Rex started to walk out the door with me, but I pushed him back with my foot.
“You stay here, buddy,” I said to him. “I’ll be right back.”
Then I walked outside and headed towards the public restroom. I had just seen my true reason for coming here. It walked into the small bathroom structure in front of me, and I had to follow. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Sara’s face right before I kill her.
Chapter 37
The bathroom was a solid brick building, and there was only one entrance door to the men’s bathroom, and one for the women’s. No secondary door means no escape. I quietly pushed the bathroom door open and pulled my gun out of the back of my pants. As I snuck quietly into the bathroom I heard the toilet flush, and I ducked inside an open stall several doors away from the one that Sara occupied. I could hear her unlocking her door and walking out.
Would she wash her hands? I thought. It doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t give her the chance.
As she passed by my open door, I reached out with the speed of a cobra and grabbed her by the arm and yanked her violently towards me. Once she was inside my stall, I slammed the door and pressed her up against it hard enough to shake the entire line of stalls. The look in her beautiful blue eyes was perfect. The initial what the fuck look was quickly replaced with the oh shit look I was looking for.
“Did you miss me?” I asked placing my left hand on her throat while pressing my gun against her temple.
“Jeffrey…” She whispered. “How…”
“How did I survive after you took my gun and set off an alarm, so that dozens of armed men could chase me down and try to kill me?” I asked through clenched teeth. My inhuman side was boiling, and my finger was twitching on the trigger of the gun.
“I…didn’t mean…” She started.
“You didn’t mean to look me in the eyes and then press an alarm that alerted men who wanted me dead to my whereabouts?”
“Jeffrey…”
“Shut up,” I demanded. “I know you. I know what you are.” I looked deep into her soulless eyes. My god, they were electric!
“I know you too.” She said flatly, allowing her more natural side to be revealed.
There was a long second while we looked at each other and truly saw the monsters that we were. Then, we dove into each other. Her lips tasted just as good as I remembered, and her skin was just as warm and perfect. My left hand left her throat and slid down her perfect body caressing every curve. Once it got to her hip, I slid it around the backside, and that’s when I got to what I really wanted.
My gun.
I pulled the gun she had taken from my bag out from the back of her pants, and then pushed her out of my way so I could exit the stall.
“What are you doing?” she called out to my back. I stopped and turned to her.
“I came here to kill you,” I said. “Now I’m not going to. Just be happy that this is how it ended.”
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
I paused. I realized that all of her life’s interaction at this point have been with normal people who have normal reactions and normal emotions. She was asking me a question because she really couldn’t see why my cold-blooded brain chose to spare her life. So I answered her truthfully.
“I have never truly opened up to anybody… Well, I told Jackson what I was.”
“Jackson…Axel’s brother?”
I nodded. “But that’s it. I told him what I was. I had to explain it to him. I don’t have to explain it to you. Because you are exactly like me. I would have pressed that alarm and sent those men to kill you just like you did to me.”
“So…”
“So… Every relationship of my life has consisted of me forcing things to happen my way. Forcing the weaker mind to bend towards my will. Lying about who I was and pretending to feel things that were impossible for me to feel. When Jack and I were running away from Axel’s men that night, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I would kill you. When we overheard some of his goons talking about some ‘bitch that scratched up Axel’s face,’ I knew it was you. I came here specifically to kill you…”
“But you didn’t.”
“I didn’t. And for someone who is painfully aware of every action and every decision I make, it is obscenely painful that I don’t understand why I didn’t pull the trigger. I didn’t want to, and I don’t know why.”
“Maybe it’s because we are so similar.”
“Maybe.” I turned to leave again, but she stopped me.
“You should stay. I have a good thing going here. The leader of this group is in love with me.”
“Bob?” I laughed. “Did you and him…?”
“No!” She answered quickly. “I told him my husband was still trying to find me, but he keeps trying to get me up to his room.”
I stopped and looked at her. I don’t know why my brain was telling me to run to her and kiss her, but I don’t like being told what to do. Even if it’s MY brain that’s telling me to do it.
“You should leave this place,” I said. “Axel is coming for you.”
“What?” she said suddenly startled.
“Tomorrow,” I said. “You should leave now.” I put my hand on the door to leave, and I felt a sudden jerk on my shoulder in the same place as my gunshot wound. I winced as I turned, and then she pushed me hard against the bathroom door. She pressed herself against me as we kissed. I held her by the wrists to ensure she wasn’t taking anything from me. She pulled away and smiled at me. Just then, there was a banging on the door behind me. I could hear Jack’s voice.
“Jeffrey! You in there?!” he said, pushing the door open and pushing both me and Sara away at the same time. He entered the bathroom and saw me, and then looked at Sara.
“Guess who I found!” I said giving him a cheery smile.
Chapter 38
“Sara!” Jack screamed as he ran to her and lifted her off the ground. As he spun her around, I looked in her eyes at the genuine looking emotion of happiness she had spread across her face.
She was good. Damn good.
Bob entered the bathroom and tried to put on one of those ‘I’m happy too’ expressions, but Bob was really only just passable in his ‘emoting.’ He’s the type of person that normal people wouldn’t really understand why they never really liked him. The truth is that even a human’s monkey brain can detect that there was just something off with his expressions. Like seeing a shadow out of place. Your brain can’t detect what exactly is wrong, but it knows that something is off.
“I knew you would get away!”
he beamed. Then his expression turned solemn, and he placed her back on the ground. “What happened at the house?”
Sara looked at me and then at Bob. I could detect the subtle flicker in her eyes as she quickly created a story that would mesh the backstory that she crafted for Bob with something reasonable that would sit well with Jack.
The Inhuman Chronicles (Book 1): Inhuman Page 26