by Mark Tufo
“You should see some of the stuff that Mad Jack’s got planned, it’s pretty impressive.” Justin said already forgetting he had barbed his sister.
“Almost seems like a waste…haven’t seen a zombie in at least two weeks,” Travis said in response.
“Oh, they’re coming,” Justin said as he absently rubbed his head.
“You know something we all should?” Tracy asked her son, all too aware of the connection he had shared with Eliza.
“Don’t worry, mom, she isn’t there anymore. (Mostly) It’s a feeling I keep getting.”
“I hope you’re wrong,” Nicole told her brother as she protectively wrapped her arms around her burgeoning belly.
“Me too.” He shuddered in response.
“I’m starving, is there anymore of that venison Aunt Nancy cooked up last night?” Travis asked.
I love teenagers, Tracy thought. What other creature on the planet could forgo just about everything else for the sake of filling its belly? Then she thought of her husband and laughed, he could do the same thing. She ached for his return. There were unfathomable depths that yearned to have him back by her side, the warmth of his touch, his humor in the face of evil, his protection of the family, his loyalty to his friends. She could not imagine walking through the world without him by her side. She wanted to believe with all her being that he was still alive, that it would take more than death itself to rip him from her side. But until she had true proof, the sound of his voice, or his hand on her cheek she could only go with Henry and his connection to Mike. It had some comfort value, because somehow, the dog seemed to know. She still longed for more, though.
“Mom? I’m hungry remember,” Travis goaded her.
“You know you are eighteen and completely capable of getting your own meal, right?” she replied.
“What fun would that be?” Travis asked, leading the way back into the kitchen.
“You alright, sister?” Justin asked Nicole.
“I miss Brendan, and I’m not sure if I believe dad is still alive like mom…and I miss him so much. I’m as big as a tractor trailer and my ankles are killing me. Other than that, not so good.”
Justin, in an unfamiliar role, went over to his sister and gave her hug.
“It’s that bad?” Nicole asked him.
“What do you mean?” he asked as he pulled back.
“You picking on me I’m used to, you offering comfort…not so much.”
“I don’t know about dad either, sis. And if he isn’t coming back, then maybe it’s time for me to maybe step up and be the man of the family.”
Nicole’s first reaction was to snort out in laughter, but his serious tone and the nature of the topic did not warrant it. This was serious business they were dealing with, and she was more than a little pleased that some of her father was bleeding out of her brother.
“Thank you, Justin,” she said tenderly.
“For what?” he asked, thinking she might be setting him up for something.
“Just for being there.” Then she did laugh a little as his chest puffed out.
“I can keep us safe,” he told her. “Or I’ll die trying.”
“Just stick to the safe part, brother, the baby is going to need his uncles.”
“I know I don’t say it often, Nicole, but I love you. Brendan was my friend, and I miss him, too. I’ll do whatever I need to so that we all stay safe.”
“Thank you, baby brother. I love you, too.”
“Now move your fat ass over so I can sit down.”
“There’s the Justin, I know and love.”
Travis came in carrying some plates loaded with sandwiches and bread.
“Thanks, man,” Justin said to his brother.
“These are mine, go get your own,” Travis said as he sat down across from his siblings.
“Travis!” Tracy called from the kitchen.
“Fine,” he said as he stuffed a handful of the chips from Justin’s plate into his mouth before handing it over.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
D, G & BT
“I’m running low on cigarettes,” Deneaux said.
“Good, because I don’t know how much longer I had before black lung kicked in,” BT said as he drove the big truck down the near empty highway.
“We need to stop for fuel and clothes for Gary anyway,” Mrs. Deneaux pleaded.
“What’s wrong with my clothes?” Gary asked.
“Please, I’ve smelled dumps on hot summer days that are pleasantly aromatic compared to you,” she told him.
“I can’t imagine you ever going to a dump,” BT said to her.
“I’ve had reason,” she replied flatly.
“I don’t even want to know,” BT said.
“I wouldn’t tell you anyway. All I know is that if I run out of cigarettes I plan on making your life a living hell,” she told him.
BT laughed. “Ah, as if I’m living the dream right now.”
“I do kind of smell bad,” Gary said, pulling his shirt up to his nose.
“I know you do, buddy. I just didn’t want to give her the satisfaction.” BT paused before speaking again. “I hate pulling off the highway, all the shit happens when we do.”
“Beats walking,” Gary said.
“Barely.”
“We’re coming up on some gas stations,” Mrs. Deneaux said with some excitement as she pointed to the blue information highway sign.
“Everyone locked and loaded?” BT asked as he got over to the right lane and put his blinker on. “Habit,” he said aloud when he noticed Gary and Mrs. Deneaux looking at him. BT got to the bottom of the exit ramp; there were two stations to the right and one to the left. “Any preference?” he asked the group.
“More chance of supplies with the two stations,” Deneaux said.
“And more chances people have been there,” Gary answered.
BT put his blinker on, signaling his intention of going left. “Sorry, it’s difficult to break a twenty-year old habit.” BT stayed on the roadway, with the truck idling as they looked closely at the gas station.
“It’s definitely had visitors,” Gary said, looking over Deneaux’s shoulder.
“Would you mind not getting too close?” she asked him with no small measure of venom in her voice. She had smoked her last cigarette over five minutes previous and she was already feeling the effects of withdrawal—whether real or imagined—it didn’t matter. She was getting as angry as a republican at a tree hugging ceremony. “You just going to sit here?” she asked BT, not hiding her hostility. Before he could even answer, she had opened her door and was climbing down. When her feet hit the ground she pulled the revolver from its harness.
“I feel sorry for whatever poor bastard gets in her way,” BT said.
“I think I see some t-shirts.” Gary peered into the store’s smashed front windows. The gas station was more of the variety store that just happened to sell gas than an outright petrol server. It was resplendent with cheap souvenirs made in China reminding travelers that they had visited the great state of Virginia. Gary climbed down also.
BT swung the truck into the station. When he shut it off, it was the quiet more than anything that unnerved him. It just wasn’t a natural silence. “Gary. Diesel?” he asked when he got the other man’s attention.
Gary pointed to the large side tank on the truck, outlined in crisp yellow letters was the word ‘diesel.’
“Yeah you can kiss my ass, too,” BT said as he went over to the underground filling tanks. Maybe we should just steal a damn fuel truck, he thought as he pulled the small metal disc up. Then he remembered the old Mel Gibson movie Road Warrior and rethought his plan. “Yeah that didn’t work out so well either.”
BT walked into the store. It looked a lot more intact than he would have expected. Not perfect, but there were still some supplies left and at least half of the shelving was still up. Gary had found a five gallon jug of water and a bar of soap. He placed the water carefully on top of one of the
remaining standing shelves. He then stripped off most of his clothes before popping the top on the water. BT turned away quickly when he realized Gary’s tightie-whities were going to be see-through as soon as they got wet.
Deneaux was rummaging in the back of the clerk counter. “They only have fucking menthol!” she fumed. “Do I look black!” she was full-on shouting now.
“That’s kind of racist don’t you think?” BT asked.
“It’s not racist if it’s the truth,” she said looking up. “Why you black people like to smoke them is beyond me.”
“First off, I don’t smoke.”
“Oh I was just using generalizations. Help me find something for a more civilized palate.”
BT walked away. He went into the service bay looking for something that would help him get some gas out of the ground. I wonder? he thought as he unscrewed a hand pump from a fifty gallon drum of what appeared to be waste oil. He found a large-throated hose that screwed on to the assembly. “Glad no one else thought of this,” he said, going out the garage door instead of going back past Gary and the vitriol spewing Deneaux.
He silently cursed himself when he walked past the window and looked in. Gary had thought better of keeping the underwear on and was now completely unclothed except for his untied boots.
“Well there’s something I’ll never be able to unsee,” BT said, heading towards the tank.
He dropped the hose into it and then unfurled the rest so that he was sitting at the tank of the truck before he started pumping. He was twenty cranks in and was about to call his idea a ‘flub’ when he felt the diesel pulsing through the line.
“Sweet!” He said as he quickly got the spigot into the tank opening.
After a few moments, Gary came out wearing a pink ‘Virginia is for Lover’s’ t-shirt and a pair of surfer shorts.
“Nice duds,” BT told him.
“Better than what I had on.”
BT could only agree.
“I’m gonna grab anything I think we can use,” Gary said. “Do you need anything?”
“Deneaux still going nuts in there?” BT asked between hand cranks.
“She seems to have calmed down since she started smoking. She keeps saying something about black people and their uncouth tastes. I’m going to grab some cleaning stuff, too, and see if I can get the back of the truck clean enough to get back into.”
“You’re going to leave me alone up front with Deneaux?”
Gary shrugged and headed back into the store. “Better you than me.”
BT pumped as fast as he could, he was waiting for something to happen; Zombies, gangs, rednecks, evangelists, or even rogue cats. It was unnatural to be in one place for so long and have absolutely nothing happen. He wasn’t complaining…he was just vigilant.
Deneaux was shuttling small plastic bags full of smokes to the truck. Gary had found a dolly and two five gallon jugs which he was using liberally to get rid of the majority of gore in the back of the vehicle. When BT had finally finished topping off the tanks, he went to the back of the truck to put the hose and pump up. Gary was in the back sweeping the human debris onto the ground. BT could not help notice—although he wished he hadn’t—that the ground behind the truck looked like the world’s largest afterbirth. He skirted around the worst of it and handed the hose up to Gary.
“You alright?” BT asked.
“Fine,” Gary said through tight lips.
“This seem strange to you?” BT asked Gary.
“Which part?”
“The part where we’re not under attack.”
“Helps break up the monotony of survival.”
BT walked away. He could imagine Mike having delivered that line, although it would have been more dry pan and less serious. He could not shake the feeling that this was too easy. Nothing they had done since the zombies had come was easy and he just couldn’t fathom why, now of all times, they were getting a break. It was welcome to say the least, and he hated to look a gift horse in the mouth—not that he had ever received one—but he understood the saying.
If this is a trap they sure are taking their time springing it, he thought as he again walked around the truck looking for signs of trouble.
Deneaux was now shuttling some food and bottles of soda that she was able to recover. “Going to eat well tonight.” She held up a can of macaroni and cheese. She was smiling around a cigarette. “These really aren’t so bad once you get used to them. Maybe you colored folks are on to something,” she said as she took another puff of her menthol smoke.
“I told you already, I don’t smoke and menthols aren’t a ‘colored’ thing,” BT said angrily.
“I’m sure you don’t eat watermelon either.” She laughed as she threw her booty into the cab.
“You old bat, who doesn’t eat watermelon?” BT asked.
“I love watermelon,” Gary said behind the canvas.
“See?” BT said, pointing towards Gary.
“Coloreds and white trash…I guess they’re close enough to be the same,” she said as she was trying to reason out this new information.
“I can’t believe that you even associate with us.” BT said to her.
“Zombies make strange bedfellows.” She laughed at her own take on the old cliché.
“Could we not mention Deneaux and beds while I’m in the back of this nasty truck cleaning up?” Gary nearly gagged.
“Let’s finish up here. I haven’t seen so much as a fly, but this place gives me the willies. I’m ready to go,” BT said, extracting himself completely from the conversation.
Deneaux made one more trip into the store. She thoroughly searched every nook and cranny lest any pack of cigarettes go unsmoked. Gary poured the remaining water in the jug onto the bed of the truck, the bigger pieces of anatomy had already been pushed to the ground. All that was left was to sluice out the remaining blood which drained down the open tailgate. The pink fluid looked more like something that would be dispensed at a Sonic restaurant than the diluted remains of life-giving blood.
“I’m ready when you are, BT,” Gary said as he tossed the red-stained broom out the back of the truck. He shut the tailgate and laid down on the hard wooden bench as BT pulled out of the station.
BT still couldn’t get over the fact that they had got just about everything they needed and hadn’t had to fight even a mad mosquito to do it. He shuddered when he finally came to the realization of why.
“Calm before the storm,” he said prophetically.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Mike Journal Entry 7
“Any idea where we are?” I asked John as we sat at the end of a tree line. I was looking at a single-wide trailer not ten yards from our location. I didn’t see any signs of life, but even before zombies, walking up on a trailer unannounced was a good way to get shot or at least yelled at by a two-fist, bearded hag. Or quite possibly you could end up on Cops.
“Weren’t we just up in the air?” John asked me as he looked to the tops of the trees.
“We crashed about two miles ago,” I replied to him, not taking my eyes off the back windows.
“Why do all the houses look the same?” John asked, trying to stand. I pulled him back down.
“We’re in a trailer park. White trash capital of the world by the looks of it,” I told him as I looked at no less than five Chevys on blocks. Sixteen clotheslines, replete with wife beater t-shirts and—I kid you not—used, washed, disposable diapers. The diapers smelled and looked relatively new; well, as new as a used diaper can anyway.
“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” John said.
It was one of the few lucid things he had said since I’d met him and I would have heeded his advice if I saw anywhere else even remotely close. But it was getting dark and I didn’t want to be out any longer than I needed. Between the two of us, all we could offer in the way of defense was some marijuana. So unless our adversary stopped and smoked the majority of John’s offering, then immediately fell asleep where we could throt
tle him out of the picture, we were in a little bit of a pinch.
“Let me think,” I said as I sat with my back to the trailer leaning up against a relatively large oak.
“You do that, I’m going to light a fattie.”
A small bird, maybe a sparrow, was a couple of branches over me. It was looking down, his head bobbing as he kept us in his line of sight, probably curious as to what we were. Not many of us running around anymore—at least not the living kind.
“Do I smell nuggets?” a voice drifted out from the trailer, the bird looked in that direction then alit from its spot.
John got up before I could stop him. “Not only is this nugget…it is coated with a proprietary blend of hashish oils.”
I fully expected John to be blown back towards me riddled with buck shot.
“Well then come on inside,” the voice said with a distinctive Southern lilt.
I swore I could hear toe-strummed banjos playing in the background.
“My name is Luke,” a gap-toothed smiling man in his mid-thirties told us as he held his door wide open. The mullet he sported harkened back to the early ‘80s, much like his felt paintings on the walls. There was a whale, an Indian, and of course, what trailer wouldn’t be complete without a smiling tassel-laden portrait of Elvis smack dab in the center. “That there is my wife Mirabelle,” Luke said as he closed the door behind us.
Mirabelle looked the part of an older Sissy Spacek minus any good looks and make-up. But she was smiling almost as broadly as Luke and somehow that put me at ease. John seemed perfectly content with our new surroundings. A black dog roughly the size of a standard pony walked over to me, took one passing sniff, and got up on the couch.
“Hercules, we have guests now…get off the couch,” Mirabelle said to the dog.
Hercules looked over at me and growled. I’d had freight trains pass me by that produced less tremble. He did, however, get off the couch.
“Sit, sit.” Mirabelle motioned.
I kept looking over at Hercules who was mean-mugging me.
“What about him?” I asked Mirabelle.