by P. S. Power
“Now,” Sammi started, looking at the room peacefully with her hands folded in front of her.
“Show of hands please, who here truly thinks that Jake is too odd or creepy to sleep with. Women only for now. I think we can all accept that the men would mainly feel that way. I have a theory. Let's see how it plays out, shall we?” She waited and one by one about half the room's hands went up.
“Ah, good, so not everyone at all then. Now, I'm seeing some familiar faces here... Of those with their hands raised, how many of you slept with Derrick Holsom? Don't be shy, we all know it happened... A lot.” Her voice was wry and older sounding than her face, enough that a few people gave her very funny looks suddenly.
Two put their hands down. One of those was Heather. The other some gray haired lady that looked like a beagle. Marla. If she had any use at all Jake didn't know what it was yet.
“Now one last question, did you really decide that Jake was “creepy” all on your own, or was it suggested to you by someone else, say a certain ex-police officer? Possibly while you were in bed? Agreeing to it just before the main event perhaps? Almost as if it was a condition of having relations that night?”
A murmur went through the room, and one by one the hands went down.
Ah. Right.
“Crap.” Tipper said vehemently. Not too loud, but with a lot of meaning.
Sammi nodded to her.
“Indeed. Derrick had a reason to dislike Jake, he feared him greatly. A far more powerful man that clearly didn't approve of what was happening, but his ego wouldn't allow him to simply admit it, so he sabotaged him as well as he could. That was his fault, but carrying it on now that you realize it is yours. I do think that this should buy us a reprieve though Jake, before we're all set adrift to die in the cold snows of winter, don't you? At least give the women here a while to see you for who you really are. If they still don't see how wonderful you are, then you can leave us all to die. Besides...” A small look of humor came from the thin faced girl then.
“Not all of them raised their hands. You might want to take note of that.”
She sounded sincere and Nate clapped his hands softly.
“Well, that's that for now then! Good. So, we need to send a team with Jake to check on the gun-smith shop in Clyde, how about Carl, Dave, Vickie and,” He looked around and finally pointed at the old vet, Barry.
“Will that do?” Nate asked.
Did they really think that just because they said they were going to change, the women would? They'd had one chance already and blown it. In fact they had every day for weeks. They were still the same people standing here now that had made him want to leave a few minutes before. He shook his head.
“Why?”Jake made the words soft. “Why in the world should I accept that anyone will change now when they didn't before? I'll go to Clyde, but I need a real answer to that. That's your reprieve Sammi. However long it takes for me to get back. If you can't come up with anything, then we're going to have a problem. I'm too tired to put up with all this anymore.” He knew they couldn't change that fast and probably wouldn't at all. But if he had to leave, waiting another month for something that was just never going to happen wouldn't work. They knew that too, and seemed to be trying to stall so that he couldn't leave later. Jake mentioned that out loud and a few people, including Nate, winced.
The girl rolled her eyes, obviously thinking he was being petty and stupid. That was fine, it was true even, but Carley turned a deep crimson red and started shaking. She clenched her fists so hard they turned white. If she'd been Ken, Jake would have assumed the next event would be him having his ass kicked. As it was he really wasn't sure that wasn't the plan. If she moved on him, he decided to just shoot her. She was armed after all.
“What the fuck? So you're saying if we don't all sleep with you you're going to let us all die? All the women? Sammi too or just the ones that are past puberty?” The curly haired blond didn't raise her voice, but rage streamed out of her anyway.
Nate groaned and buried his head in his hands. Before he could say anything Vickie walked forward into the room, shaking her head. Jake expected her to lay into him too, but she surprised him, more than a little. She looked pissed, true, but didn't turn it on him at all.
“Don't be a moron Carley. Jake only asked that he be given an honest shot, not that anyone show up in his bed. The sense here is a lot more about saying hi and not rejecting him just because you're an uptight bitch that thinks you're too good for him, than being tied down and raped. If he was into that kind of thing we'd all know about it by now.” She grimaced.
“Plus, trying to imply he's a child molester isn't helping. Are you trying to force a gun battle? If that happens right now a lot of us die. It's already a raw situation, but you can't help but push things can you? You helped cause this problem by being a stuck-up snob and now you want to force him to start killing people? Have you ever noticed that he's awfully good at that part of things?”
Carley winced, “I didn't mean...”
Jake looked at her, glaring directly into her eyes. He didn't move for nearly a minute but then just looked at Nate who couldn't manage direct eye contact at the moment.
“I think everyone should be starting to get the kind of messed up lies and crap I've been dealing with for a while now. And Carley is practically a friend compared to most of the people here.”
Sammi sighed loudly. It was enough to get everyone's attention at least. The girl stared at the room hard and shook her head.
“No.” She said simply. “We are not doing this again. Jake, it will be fixed by the time you and the others get back. Carley, you're with me. Outside. Now.”
No one laughed at the command, but Carley just crossed her arms and glared at him. Then Vickie nodded.
“You heard her Carley. Go. You too T. If you pulled shit like this at... well, you know all that. Go.” Vickie pointed at Tipper and then turned to him.
“There we go. Sammi and Nate will take care of this, let's get out of here before someone starts suggesting you're a closet cannibal too.”
Carl could drive a stick shift and Vickie admitted she could too, if not very well. She'd had classes on it though. Drivers-Ed or something. She left that part a little vague. He got the gist though, the sub-text. Military training of some kind. Probably a lot more high level than not, for all she claimed to have minimal skills. They really needed to have a conversation about not holding back soon. Before it got people killed.
Jake could deal with that. If Sammi could be believed it was a lot of people at the house, not just Vickie or Tip. She hadn't even said he was too creepy to sleep with. Not that she'd pick to be with him, but it was nice to know that she didn't secretly hate him without reason. Finally the women in the room looked a little ashamed of themselves. Some of them. Probably not for the right reasons, but it beat that willful arrogance that they'd had going on as a group before.
Yeah, no one had to sleep with him, but they'd done it as part of a campaign to attack him. To make him feel like less than he was. On purpose. Kind of. Not their individual plan maybe, but they'd been party to it and they'd known who told them to act like that. Would anything change now though? He didn't know.
Probably not.
If they were willing to just go with him being creepy because someone said so a couple of times, then that had to be coming from something deeper, didn't it?
Like they were all secretly evil and out to get him? His inner voice was wry and humorous about it at least, though a niggling thought that it could be true played in as well. He really needed to get out of there. Not just on the mission, but forever. Somehow he had to make it through to spring.
Then he was gone.
Everyone had to pretty much hate him now if they hadn't before, right? He'd made it too clear that what he'd done for them was needed and that without his efforts, they'd have been in trouble. And they had been before. Take him out of the equation and the whole thing fell apart, however that worked. It w
as probably true for a bunch of other people too, Lois, Julio, Burt and Nate, but they knew it about him now. No one liked to feel they owed someone that much. Especially someone “creepy”.
They hit the road fast and hard, driving right toward the building itself, Carl at the wheel with Vickie riding shotgun next to Barry. That left him and Dave in the back together, with no windows to watch from. It was a shame because Jake would have liked the distraction from his thoughts.
He wasn't seething, maybe, but really, he didn't need this stuff anymore, did he? No one did. He'd done his part and they'd failed in theirs, what more could they ask? Well, they could try for everything, but that didn't seem right, did it? As they rolled along the road Jake decided to just leave when he got back, no matter what. He'd left the smaller house provisioned and as long as no one got in his way, he could make it there. The idea left him feeling better. If nothing else he could get a few good night's sleep before he died. That would make it worthwhile if nothing else.
Oh, he probably wouldn't do it, but the thought was nice. He was at least going to work on that house too, just in case.
They had to hang on to the wagon to keep it from rolling around on them. The wood brown looked much darker in the nearly black of the sheltered vehicle, only a bit of light being let in around a screen near the top of the side, a strong looking metal mesh of some kind, the holes too small to do anything of note with, which was the point. There had been places for shackles but a few had been ripped out, probably when they tried to transport super-zombies. The stupidest weapon ever. Possibly literally. They weren't called land sharks for nothing.
Even if Jake was the only one that called them that. It was a good name though. Descriptive.
Nom, nom, humans. That about explained the whole thing right there. Jake sighed and rode in silence.
The trip went fast, the roads clear for the most part, allowing them to just move at a comfortable speed.
Right until the explosion.
Then everything went sideways fast. Literally sideways, to the right a good way, hard to tell without windows, then tilting when a second jolt nearly knocked the vehicle over. It fell back onto its wheels somehow, but it had been close.
They were all fine, except for Dave who had an injured arm from flying across the rig and catching himself. His left wrist, it looked like, so he could still shoot just fine. He just had to cradle the rifle in his left arm and turn a bit sideways.
Jake didn't wait for everyone to report in, Carl was dazed and Vickie moved with him, faster than he did somehow, even though they went out the back door and she had a lot greater distance to travel getting there, and a wagon in the way. They leaped out and rolled, Vickie doing it very well, Jake kind of roughly. He'd never really practiced the move, but the gunfire coming in dictated doing something other than just standing up and waving politely.
They both fired as they moved, not hitting anything, just trying to buy some space and not let themselves be pinned down. The blond woman smiled sweetly. It was eerie. Jake was used to seeing her matter of fact, or occasionally angry, but looking peaceful in the midst of battle...
“Rush them?” She said, as the shooting intensified.
“Alright.” Jake grinned. It was as good an idea as anything else given their open and exposed position.
They did, without pause or hesitation, a suicidal move, except that the people shooting couldn't understand what they were doing at first. It actually got them to hesitate for a second.
They wore police blues, but didn't call out for them to stop. No screaming about how they were the authorities or trying to claim the legal high ground. The reason was obvious there, they were the bad guys. More, everyone in Westwood knew it.
You didn't stop for the police, you just shot at them instantly, because otherwise you'd be dead soon. Naturally. Vickie hit one of them, a high shoulder wound that wouldn't have even staggered a zombie for more than a moment, so Jake followed up with a head shot. It was just what you did in the field. You backed up your partners. The men fired from hidden positions, and that worked pretty well for them, since the blasts had kind of shaken up the good guys. Vickie ran and he followed behind her, picking off another one as they went, a pure luck shot of course. He wasn't that good. You didn't do accurate shooting while moving as a rule, much less running.
Dave and Carl took advantage of the rush to do their own version of one, and go around the edge of the increasingly small group, taking the remaining four in a few moments while they were distracted. Vickie had a gunshot wound to her middle, but the red blotch didn't bleed much, it was near the center and she looked down at it and shrugged.
“Flesh wound.” She said simply, not even bothering to bandage it. Or explain.
“Heh. I... alright, we can chat about this later if you want. Or not. I don't really care if you want to keep secrets, just, you know, if you have super-powers... fucking use them will you? You and Tipper are sisters, right?” He said suddenly getting her to wheel around halfway and stare at him.
“She told you? I guess I can see that... but we agreed to keep it quiet. It's not like you were even lovers, but... Yeah, I guess I won't hide it from you anymore then.” She shrugged, a small smile gracing her lips. It didn't touch her eyes at all though. “I'm still going to kick Tip's ass though. She's been totally fucking up lately. Mom would have her behind if she knew about the monumental fuck ups.”
Jake shook his head and then sighed.
“No. She didn't tell me. God Vickie... she didn't even tell me she liked men. You think she's going to causally mention combat related abilities like that? If I weren't just leaving anyway, no matter what happens, I'd suggest we get together with a few people at the house and have a chat. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but a few of the others aren't exactly regular either. You should all stop hiding and work together.” He walked toward the downed bodies and recognized the oldest one as the local police chief, thats what the nameplate said at least. Why he still wore it now Jake didn't know, but there you had it.
A lot of the cops still had. Like it made what they were doing somehow better or more moral. The shiny tag had scratches though, some new, some older. Jake shot each of the men in the head again to make sure they didn't get up, then took their weapons, ammo and... rocket launcher. A brand new, unused one.
Upgrade!
The idea made him smile. Life really was like a video game where you just found weapons lying around.
The blond gave him a solid half glare.
“You just think you're leaving. You can't.” She chuckled and pointed at the weapon. “Just think of all the great toys you'd miss out on if you do.”
Jake sighed and shook his head. “Just think of the mess my brains will make after another night of sleeping alone on the set of a bad porn movie.” He mimicked putting a gun to the side of his head and pulling the trigger.
“Oh.” She said softly. “Crap. Yeah. Well, it will work out one way or the other. If not, well, it will. It has to, because I'm not dying anytime soon. It's not how we're wired. I really don't think you're wired that way either.” She gave him a grin.
“Tip and I are Valkyries, what are you? I've wondered for a long time actually, some of the things you've pulled off...”
Jake shrugged. “Rumor is I'm a very good man.” If two people making you the butt of a joke is a rumor. At least they'd been pleasant about it. His Mom had mentioned that too, now that he thought about it. And... Heather.
Vickie stared at him and didn't move or blink for a long time. A very, very long time.
“Oh.” She said, suddenly sounding sad, but there were no tears in her eyes. “God Jake, I'm... so... sorry.”
Then she laughed. It was low and lasted for a while but when she sobered she caught her breath instantly, breathing into her stomach like she hadn't been shot there at all.
“Who's the Bawdri? They're the best at finding that kind of thing out, I wouldn't have guessed in a thousand years. Nate... no he'd have
to be ancient to look like he does... Wait, Sammi?”
Jake shrugged.
“I don't know, but she's on our side, so don't hurt her, or you know, super-soldier or not, we'll have an issue.”
Instead of flashing into anger, the woman just grinned at him.
“A very good man. Damn... no wonder...”
Then she shut up. Abruptly. Vickie gave him a near full minute of a look so strange Jake didn't have a name for it. It wasn't a happy thing either. Not anger at least, but she ended it by shaking her head.
Shrugging he moved on to other things, leaving about a third of his attention on the woman beside him.
The weapon was a lot lighter than he thought it would be from the look and seemed to be made of fiberglass. That or some strange kind of plastic. There were printed instructions on the side which he read through carefully, pretending to do all of it and then sliding the device to his shoulder. As he did that a voice called out from beyond the large fenced area. With a start Jake realized it was the police compound. Crud.