EAT SLAY LOVE

by Jesse Petersen

  “Oh God, don’t encourage him, he’s useless already!” Nicole groaned.

  Kathleen’s cheeks darkened with girlish embarrassment even further. “Anyway, I can answer any of your questions while you eat.”

  I bit into an apple and barely contained my moan of pleasure. Oh fresh fruit, how I’d missed you and your awesome vitamins and minerals and sweetness and… oh, sorry.

  “I have a question, but it’s not going to be quick,” Dave said.

  She nodded. “Go ahead.”

  “What the fuck happened here?”

  Kathleen’s smile fell. “Same thing that happened everywhere, I guess. When the outbreak started in Seattle, the news was everywhere and as it spread, it was the usual ‘Zombie Watch 2010’ on all the stations. But then… the news stopped. They kept saying ‘technical difficulties’ and had those ‘Please Stand By’ things on all the stations. Within a couple of days, we noticed the Wall going up.”

  I swallowed my bite of fruit, which was now hard and flavorless as sand. “A couple of days?”

  She nodded. “Apparently the government knew almost immediately that the West would be a loss. I’m guessing there was some serious loss-versus-cost analyses during those days. Whatever happened, they decided to draw a line right on the edge of Normal and keep the virus from coming any farther than here. Except they weren’t about to let a flood of refugees from outside come in and maybe bring the infection. That’s when they started ‘clearing out’ the towns within fifteen miles of the Wall.”

  “Clearing out?” Dave said. “What does that mean?”

  Kathleen arched a brow as she stared at us evenly and let her words sink in. They seemed to hit McCray, of all people, first.

  “Wait, you mean they… they killed people?” McCray choked.

  One of the others in the group who was standing back around the wall of the underground compound nodded. “If we hadn’t had Jacob’s help and the help of other farmers with underground bunkers, we’d all be dead.”

  I shook my head. “And here I thought we had it bad, running from the zombies. No one official was shooting at us. Trying to eat our brains, sure. Occasionally trying to convert us to their religion or take us as sacrifices, why not? But officially kill us, never.”

  Kathleen’s eyes went wide. “Sounds like you’ve had your own interesting time, but yes. It was a shock when it first happened. We got over it, though. There wasn’t a lot of choice in the matter. For the past few months we’ve been building a bigger and bigger circle of survivors as a kind of resistance movement.”

  “Resist what? The zombies or the government?” Nicole asked.

  She hadn’t touched any of the food, but just leaned back in one of the chairs, watching all of us carefully. She looked very reporter-y at present. And not trashy celebrity reporter, either. This was Nicole, Future CNN goddess, multiple Pulitzer prize winner at work.

  “Both, I guess,” Kathleen said with a wry smile. “The zombies have to be dealt with, of course. They’re a constant threat and their forces never seem to get smaller. Plus, they don’t surrender like a human force would if you wiped out half of them. They just… keep… coming.”

  We were all silent for a moment, pondering that horrible truth that had been our world for so many months.

  “Okay, so you all kill the zombies, but what do you do about the soldiers?” Dave asked. “I mean, I’m guessing the group we saw down below the overpass isn’t the only platoon or whatever guarding the Wall. So even with that cool missile launcher you have and all these people, you’re a little outnumbered.”

  Kathleen nodded. “You’re right about that. Plus, we don’t want to kill the soldiers if we can avoid it. They’re following orders from people much higher up and I know for a fact that when they don’t, they’re set out for the zombies without any protection.”

  “Sounds familiar,” I muttered as I thought of all our experiences over the past few months.

  Dave nodded. “Sounds like the government has gone a little crazy culty, themselves.”

  Kathleen pursed her lips. “We’ve rescued several of those poor men after they were put out. The only good thing about the expulsion is that their expertise does come in handy for our movement.”

  “So how do you resist if you don’t shoot the soldiers?” Nicole pressed.

  “By trying to get the word out to the people on the other side of the Wall,” Kathleen explained. “Most of them don’t have any idea we’re still alive out here. When the television eventually came back on their side, their ‘news’ had changed. A lot of the anchors and reporters had been replaced by government scabs who were willing to repeat the party line for cash and protection.”

  Nicole flinched and I couldn’t help but join her. So much for First Amendment rights.

  “All they’ve been showing on television or online are all kinds of pictures of the burned-out cities and the zombies, but they never show the living. They never talk about the camps or the people fighting to survive. So the majority of those inside the Wall think that everything and everyone in the West is dead and that the whole area has to be quarantined until the government can destroy all the zombies.”

  Nicole shut her eyes. “And if they see it on TV…”

  Kathleen nodded. “Then it must be true. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is.”

  “Which is why they can’t let us get in,” I moaned. “If we did, we’d ruin their story. People would start asking a hell of a lot of questions.”

  “And they wouldn’t want that,” one of Kathleen’s minions grunted in anger.

  She sighed. “But there are several groups on the other side who are fighting to get the truth out. An underground network of reporters, regular people and scientists who are working on proving the virus was created by the government and that thousands of people survived.”

  “Did you say reporters?” Nicole asked and I could practically see her ears perking up at the thought of her brethren working to save the world.

  “Forget the reporters. Did you say scientists?” Dave asked and he cast a quick glance at me. Well, my chest, but not for the nookie. I could see he was looking where the vial of our cure hung.

  Sounded like exactly the kind of people we’d need to reach to make sure that precious vial ended up in the right hands.

  “But how does this resistance movement work?” Nicole asked. “I mean, before the soldiers shot him, your friend was shouting about cell phone service being cut off out here and radios being destroyed.”

  “And they have control of the Internet,” one of Kathleen’s people added helpfully.

  “How does that work?” David said with a blink.

  “Ever heard of China?” McCray laughed. “They were doing it for years. I would guess our government might be even better.”

  Kathleen nodded. “Exactly. They monitor everything online, they edit everything, they block everything. When something does manage to get out, it’s debunked as insanity and the source is… taken care of. It’s a full-on crackdown.”

  Nicole shut her eyes briefly. When she opened them again, they were hard and angry. “If there’s no communication, how can you resist anything by spreading the truth?”

  “The government did confiscate and destroy most shortwave radios, but…” Kathleen smiled. “They didn’t get all of them. There’s a woman in Normal with one and she and her husband help us disseminate all our information to the other resistance members all over the East. By radio, by hand-printed newsletter, by information tree. It’s old fashioned, but it’s been working so far.”

  “So who are these people?” Nicole asked. “Were they military or something beforehand?”

  “Nope, just ordinary folks just like us.” Kathleen gave an affectionate smile. “Her name is Molly Lexington.”

  I blinked and Dave turned on me with a look of shock I hadn’t seen since we came into our marriage counselor’s office and found her going all Zombie Bitch on the couple who were her clients before us.


  “Did… did you say Molly Lexington?” I whispered and my voice cracked. Honestly, I was surprised I had a voice at all.

  Kathleen nodded slowly and her brow wrinkled as she looked at me. “Yeah, why?”

  I didn’t answer but grabbed for Dave’s hand. I could actually feel the blood draining from my face and I suddenly felt super lightheaded.

  “What?” Nicole asked as she glanced at us. “What is that look for?”

  I guess maybe I should have hidden my thoughts, since we didn’t really know these people all that well. I guess I should have kept what I was about to say to myself. But I couldn’t. I was too freaked the fuck out to try, say, discretion at this moment.

  My voice shook. “Um, Lexington was my maiden name; my mom’s name is Molly and she lives in Normal.” I shot Dave a quick look. “But she and my dad have been divorced for years and she went back to her own maiden name. So it can’t be her. It can’t be her.”

  Kathleen stared at me. “Well, her husband’s name is John, if that helps.”

  If I hadn’t been sitting down, I would have fallen over. As it was, I gripped the table edge to keep from tumbling from the chair. “T-That’s my dad’s name.”

  Kathleen stepped closer. Her hands were shaking as hard as mine were. “Their daughter and son-in-law were from Seattle. Part of the reason they help us is in the hope that the two of them are among the survivors. You wouldn’t happen to be from Seattle, would you?”

  I couldn’t move, so David was the one who jerked out a short nod.

  Now Kathleen had as freaked out an expression as I could feel I did. “Sarah was her name. And David?”

  I swallowed. Twice. Hard. And then I croaked out, “Get me to your radio. I want to talk to my mommy.”

  Know yourself. Also know your friends. Sometimes both will amaze you.

  The first fifteen minutes I talked to my mom was pretty much an incoherent mass of blubbering. I won’t go into all the messy, snotty details, partly because it would bore you and partly because I think I’ve established myself here as a pretty tough broad. I wouldn’t want to tell you how I cried until I blocked a sinus the moment I heard my mom’s voice.

  “Where’s Dad, over?” I finally said when I could do more than hiccup incoherent sounds.

  “He’s at the store, but he’ll be back in a few minutes, over,” she answered.

  I shook my head. The last time my parents had been together, my mom had thrown dishes at my dad’s head. I couldn’t exactly picture them in the same house without imagining bloodshed that had nothing to do with zombies.

  “So are you two back together or something?”

  There was a hesitation since I hadn’t said “over.” Or maybe because she didn’t want to say it out loud after all the custody fighting and putting me in the middle over the years. But then her voice crackled over the radio.

  “Um, yes. He showed up here about a week after the outbreak.”

  “How the fuck did he get over—”

  “What?”

  I shook my head. “I wasn’t finished.”

  “Oh, sorry. You said over. Over.”

  I rolled my eyes. Apparently I had entered a twilight zone. An Abbot and Costello, “Who’s on first?” twilight zone.

  “I was asking, how did he get across the Wall? They were killing people by a week in, weren’t they?”

  I could hear the smile in her voice when she replied. “Well, you know your father. He’s resourceful. He was the last one to smuggle in before the government got its act together.”

  “And so you two ended up back together,” I said, giving Dave a blank stare. He shrugged. He’d seen the two of them trying to be civil in a room together and failing (at our engagement party, our wedding, one time when Dave broke his arm and they both showed up at the hospital… I could go on). It was as much a mystery to him as it was to me.

  “Yes. These kinds of situations will do that.” She hesitated. “How are you and David? Did the counseling work, over?”

  I looked at Dave and he shook his head with a grin even though my mom was sort of publicly airing our issues to the group of resistance fighters who were now all staring at us with speculation.

  “Um, well, like you said, zombie apocalypses will bring you closer together,” I answered. “He’s right here.”

  There was an audible sigh of relief on the other end of the radio. “Oh good. I really thought the two of you would break up and—”

  “Um, Mom!” I burst out as I looked at the others in pure embarrassment. Seriously, this was as bad as her commenting on my status updates on Facebook. “Other people present.”

  “Sorry,” she said. “But you’re okay? No one was bitten?”

  I glanced at David. He was rubbing his scar on his hand and McCray and Nicole were both watching him do it. And now we were in a quandary. Apparently my mother was the Ma Barker of the Zombie Underground. If that was true, she needed to know about the cure and the superzombie thing so that we could somehow get what we had across to the scientists she knew and trusted.

  But that meant spilling our secret in front of all these “rebels.” And I wasn’t sure how they would take it.

  Dave stepped forward and gently took the radio receiver from my hand. “Hi Molly,” he said.

  “David! How are you, honey?”

  The relief in her voice was palpable, almost like she hadn’t fully trusted that I was telling the truth about his whereabouts. Thanks, Mom.

  “Molly, I need you to listen, okay?” he said as he shot me a look. “I was… I was bitten.”

  Suddenly the feeling in the room around us shifted. Guns cocked and lifted, pointing at my husband.

  “Wait, please!” I begged, standing between them, though I was pretty sure these people wouldn’t hesitate to shoot right through me to kill a zombie in their safe haven. “Let him explain.”

  My mom’s voice was strained. “Oh, honey. When?”

  He looked at the group before he lifted the radio receiver and said. “Almost a month ago, Molly.”

  Around the room were looks of confusion, and the same was definitely reflected in my mom’s tone when she responded. “Then how are you still… talking?”

  “We have a cure,” he explained.

  Half the guns dropped immediately and all the eyes in the room widened at once.

  Kathleen blinked. “Shit, change channels,” she burst out.

  Dave lowered the receiver. “What?”

  “Tell them you’re changing channels, they’ll know which one to switch to,” Kathleen snapped.

  He did as she told him and my mom didn’t seem fazed.

  “What the hell?” he asked as he turned the knob to the channel Kathleen told him to move to.

  She shook her head. “In case they’re trying to monitor us. The radio system works well, but there’s no security. And we don’t want them hearing this.”

  I stared. Apparently we’d gotten dropped into the real-life version of Big Brother. Only there wasn’t any half-a-million-dollar prize at the end. Not that money had any value out here besides as a fire starter.

  My mom’s voice crackled on the other side of the radio. “David?”

  He raised the radio to his lips again. “Hey, Molly.”

  “Tell us everything,” she said with a shaky tone. “Fast before we have to change channels again.”

  “This cure, it stopped me from changing.” He shrugged. “Pretty much. I don’t kill others. I don’t want to.”

  “A-a cure?” my mom whispered.

  “Truly?” Kathleen said as she took a step toward us. She was pale as paper and her mouth was tense.

  I started to nod, but before I could say anything, Nicole interrupted.

  “I’ve seen it,” she explained. “And Dave isn’t lying. I’ve been with these two for days and I’ve seen his… powers. But I’ve never felt threatened. What about you, McCray?”

  The rocker jolted at the sound of his name and he glanced at Nicole blankly. “Huh?” She
elbowed him… hard, and he grunted with pain. “Fuck, I agree with whatever she’s talking about!”

  “David?” my mom’s voice crackled over the radio.

  Dave gave a smile to Nicole and McCray before he lifted the receiver back to his mouth. “Sorry, Molly. Yes, you heard me right. A cure. We have a sample, but there’s nothing we can do with it out here with no electricity. Is it true there are scientists in your Underground? People who might be able to do something with this if we could get it to you?”

  “Oh my God,” my Mom said.

  “Mom?” I leaned closer and said into the radio. “Please tell me we didn’t carry this here for nothing.”

  “No!” she burst out. “We can definitely do something with it. Hang on, your father just came in.”

  Oh, dear old Mom. She might have been a leader of the Zombie Underground, but she still was no good at technology. Instead of turning the mic off, she left it open, so we all got to hear her muffled explanation of our survival, my dad’s whoops of joy, and then the story of Dave being bitten and our potential cure.

  My dad was the next to get on the line. “Sarah?”

  He sounded like he was crying and that got me started. I took the receiver from David. “Daddy?”

  “Oh, thank God, it’s you. Change channels, baby.”

  I pursed my lips. Damn, this security thing was a buzz kill. I turned the knob to the next number Kathleen said and soon enough my dad was back on the line.

  “Chickadee,” he said, using a childhood nickname I’d always hated, but now loved. “Mom tells me you have a cure?”

  I nodded and then realized he couldn’t see me. Duh.

  “Yes. But how can we get it to you? Those soldiers at the gate on this side have pretty much proven they’re not going to just let us waltz in.”

  There was a moment of hesitation, then my dad again, strong and sure of himself, as always: “I know some people. We’ll get you and that cure through at any cost. I’ll need some time to get it set up, though. Can you wait a few more hours?”

  I almost laughed. Almost. For months Dave and I had been fighting our way through zombie hell, and my dad wanted to know if we could sit in a safe bunker for what amounted to the blink of an eye.