“Butcher, and trust me, she repaid the favor.”
Dallas turned her attention back to Roper. “Are you okay? We saw the flames. Heard the gunfire. A whole lotta bad shit went on down here.”
“I’m fine. A little singed around the edges is all.” Roper kept her arm around Einstein’s shoulders. “I apologize for scaring you. There were several men who—”
Dallas waved her off. “It’s not important. What’s important is you’re safe. You’re safe.”
Roper locked eyes with Dallas as if trying to read between her words before walking over to Merlin, who was virtually impossible to see in the darkness. Pulling a package from the saddlebag, she handed it to Dallas. “How about we move back into the hills, make ourselves a fire, and barbecue up some burgers?”
Dallas was too stunned to reply, but Einstein wasn’t.
“No way. You actually got patties?”
Roper laughed. “Way. Come on. Let’s make us something to eat and I’ll tell you all about it.”
After Butcher hopped on behind Roper, the four took to the hills, where they made a fire and cooked the hamburgers using a stretch of foil. As everyone ate, Roper told the story of their escape.
“So we realized we were better off staying in the freezer until the flames died down in the restaurant.”
Einstein was riveted. “Oh man, weren’t you scared?”
“To death, but we knew running through the flames might kill us anyway and even if we’d made it, we might have run right into gunfire. So, we took a chance that the building would burn down before the heat became too unbearable. As it was, we waited just long enough, so when the fire was burning itself out, we made a run for it.”
“Where did you go?”
Butcher replied, “Underground.”
“Underground?”
She repeated her single word answer. “Underground.”
Dallas could see by the fire she was Hispanic-looking and probably younger than she had originally thought, though the salt and pepper bob made her appear older.
“I served as a medic in Iraq and Afghanistan. When a city was being flattened, the safest place to go was down. Flames and smoke rise.”
“Butcher shoved me down a manhole moments before the place really caught fire. I was afraid they were going to bomb it, so we stayed underground until it looked safe to come out.”
Dallas leaned closer to Butcher. “Thank you for taking care of Roper. We’ve become… rather fond of her.”
“Like I said, it went both ways. If I hadn’t pulled her to the freezer, I’d have taken a risk that would have gotten my ass shot up.”
“How come you go by Butcher?” Einstein asked.
Butcher finished her burger before answering. “I flunked out of med school because…well…let’s just say some of my cadavers looked like they’d been butchered when I got through with them. I have the mind and heart of a surgeon, but the hands of a platypus. Quoted by one of my instructors who gave me the nom de plume.”
Einstein busted out laughing. “That’s a good one.”
“Let’s just say it’s better than my real name.”
They all waited. The fire crackled and spit in the silent darkness.
“Magenta.”
“Magenta? Like the color?”
She nodded her head in disgust. “Yeah. Like the color. And I hate the name Maggie, or Mags, or Genta. No, I was thrilled when some jerk-off professor ridiculed me in front of an entire class by calling me Butcher. It stuck. I was glad.”
“As nicknames will do.”
They each shared the origins of their names, but when Einstein shared that Dallas and Roper had given it to him, Butcher leaned forward and locked eyes with him. “So you think you know what the hell is going on?”
“He hasn’t been wrong yet,” Roper said softly.
“I only know scenarios I’ve seen in the movies and in video games,” Einstein explained. “So I just have more educated guesses than these two.”
Butcher leaned back. “I suppose your guess is as good as any right now, but I can honestly tell you all this: I’ve seen the US military do this action once before in the middle east and that was when they were trying to contain the Taliban. We killed civilians and Taliban alike.”
Einstein sat up a little straighter. “See? Containment knows no sides. You have to wipe the slate clean.”
“It’s SOP in many parts of the world. You can’t afford to let people live.” Butcher finished her burger and sucked the juice form her fingers. “Damn, that burger was good. Thank you.”
“It was the least we could do for your save of our Roper. Really. We appreciate it so much.”
“No man left behind, you know?” Rising, Butcher stood up and excused herself.
“In gaming we just say bio…for biological break.”
All three women stared at him before he nodded. “Bio break it is.”
Roper suddenly reached out and laid her hand on Dallas’s thigh. “I don’t want to put you two on the spot, but I was hoping we could offer Butcher a place with us.”
“You mean she wants to ride with us?” Einstein asked.
Roper nodded, but she was looking at Dallas.
“I don’t see why not,” Einstein said, oblivious to whatever look the two women were sharing.
Roper was still looking at Dallas, who placed her hand over hers. “I could never turn away someone who saved your life. She is more than welcome to come with us.”
Roper gently squeezed Dallas’s thigh. “Thank you. It couldn’t hurt to have a doctor around—even one whose nickname is Butcher.”
Dallas looked at Einstein, her hand still on top of Roper’s. “Would you mind getting Lance ready for a rider? Just make sure his saddle is tight enough for a rider and then we’ll need to distribute the supplies evenly.”
“Sure thing.”
When Einstein left, Dallas turned back to Roper and held her hand between both of hers. “You scared the crap out of me.” Her voice was soft as she ran her thumb across Roper’s palm.
Roper blew out a deep breath. “You and me both. It was touch and go there for a while, Dallas, and I wasn’t at all sure we were going to make it back. I’m sorry to have worried you but we were afraid of being followed, afraid the military would come back. Hell, we were just plain afraid. We might have stayed underground too long, but at least we knew we were safe from any bombings. I knew you’d come after Merlin, so we just waited in the shadows for you to collect.”
Dallas did not release her hand. “Well, I hope your wait was easier than ours.” Dallas hesitated. “He cried.”
Roper put her hand over her heart. “Aw. The kid likes me.”
Dallas gently squeezed Roper’s hand before letting go. “He’s not the only one. You know, he said that people who care about others don’t live through his zombie movies, but I need you to know that I do care and I’ll never leave you hanging. I’ll never just disappear. We just need a better plan in the event we get separated again.”
Roper let her fingers travel across Dallas’s eyebrow. “I’d rather die caring about someone than live alone in this mess, Dallas. And yeah, you’re right. We need a better plan. We need to have some contingency plans. We’ll look at the map during daylight and devise the best possible route and what we should do if we have to deviate from it.”
Dallas held Roper’s hand once more. “Good. Because I don’t want to spend another day like today.”
Roper grinned. “I understand…and…I care about you, too. Both of you. Thanks for taking Butcher in with us. Her military and medical training will come in handy.”
“It already has.”
****
They rode until two in the morning, and when Einstein nearly fell off his horse as he dozed off, they all decided rest was needed.
“We’re minus one sleeping bag,” Einstein said groggily. “Butcher can have mine.”
“No, no, I couldn’t.”
Dallas tossed hers on the ground.
“Take mine. Roper and I can bunk together, right Rope?”
Roper smiled. “Absolutely.”
“Everyone needs to be rested up because tomorrow, we need to travel a little during the day in order to get a better look at the lay of the land.”
Butcher kicked off her shoes and slid into the nylon sleeping bag. “Good idea. Unless we are spotted by a helicopter, we should be safe up here in the hills.”
Roper scrunched down in the sleeping bag and held it open for Dallas, who crawled in after her.
“Butcher, you said you’ve seen this before. What can we expect next?”
Propping up on her elbows, Butcher replied. “In Afghanistan, we took out a lot of innocent people under the premise that just because they were innocent now didn’t mean they would remain that way.”
“Culling the herd,” Roper said softly.
Butcher nodded. “Precisely. In a survival scenario, make no mistake that it’s the military who wins. Everyone else, and I do mean everyone, is expendable.”
Dallas couldn’t believe how warm the inside of the sleeping bag was with two people in it. It was so comforting, she relaxed so much, her eyelids felt like they weighed five pounds. She wanted to put her head down and go to sleep, but they still needed to make plans. They still needed to discuss safety issues and supplies and…
As if reading her mind, Roper reached over to her backpack and pulled out her road atlas and flashlight.
“Okay.” Roper said, flattening the paper. “Here’s the deal. Horses can travel between twenty and thirty miles a day. It’s approximately five hundred miles to Death Valley, but that’s going around Bakersfield, and that’s a bad plan.”
Einstein cleared his throat. “Big city only means more man eaters.”
Butcher leaned over and now all of their heads were above the map.
“The last news clip I saw said Los Angeles was under siege. By the time we get to Bakersfield, those things could easily have reached it.”
“I’d count on that,” Roper said. “Remember, even limping along in that gross way they do, they can cover two miles in an hour. In a twenty-four hour period, that’s almost fifty miles.”
“Damn.”
They all quietly looked at the map.
“I say we need to go through the Sequoia National Park. There will be less population there. The going will be slower, but safer. There will be a lot of cover from the helicopters. It will possibly eliminate both enemies for the time being.”
Dallas studied the map. “I like it.”
“But?”
Dallas looked up at Roper, their faces inches apart. Something hung between them for a fleeting moment and then was gone. “But we’re going to need more food before we head on our way, especially through the park.”
Butcher considered this. “Agreed. With the infrastructure down, we’ll only be able to scavenge for another day or so. After that, the only meat we should eat is live caught.”
Roper concurred. “That won’t be hard. We’ll have cows and sheep for most of the way. We should be fine.”
“What about medical supplies?” Butcher asked.
“We only have the basics.”
“We need more than the basics.”
Roper looked at the map and put her finger on a town, Mesa Verde. “Here. There’s a strip mall right off the freeway.”
The other two women looked at her and Einstein made a derisive noise.
“You obviously don’t watch horror movies. Never go to the mall. Kiss of death.”
Roper gathered the map and flashlight and put them back in her bag. “This isn’t a movie and there’s ammo and a few other choice items we can pick up at the mall. It’s been a long day and I’m going to crash in two seconds.”
With the lights out and with only the moon shining down on them, the crickets serenaded them almost to sleep.
Almost.
Dallas rolled over and was front to back with Roper. “It would be more comfortable if—”
“We spooned?”
Dallas swallowed hard wondering if letting Roper know she was gay would make a difference. Would it weird her out? Change things between them, as it so often had in Dallas’s life? Coming out was always a risk. Always.
She decided she’d save it for later. Right now, she needed a warm body. Well, not just a warm body—Roper’s warm body. She’d come to depend on her, and the thought that she might have been dead…it ripped through her, surprising herself that she cared as much as she did.
“You have no idea how glad I am you’re alive,” Dallas whispered, tentatively sliding her arm around Roper’s waist.
Taking Dallas’s arm, Roper pulled her closer. “Me, too.”
“Let’s not do that again.”
“Agreed.”
As darkness swept over them only Dallas’s eyes remained open as she thought about Einstein’s words regarding caring for others. She decided that in the end, if she bought the farm because she cared about someone, she would be just fine with that.
It sure as hell beat dying alone.
****
No one was more surprised than Dallas when she rolled over and looked at her watch to see that it was eight o’clock in the morning and everyone but Butcher was still sleeping. Slowly extricating herself from Roper, Dallas joined Butcher at the horses. “Morning.”
“It is certainly that.”
“I just wanted to thank you again for saving her.”
Butcher looked over at the sleeping Roper. “Is she your lover?”
“No! I mean, no. I think she’s straight. It’s not really a conversation we’ve had, you know?” Dallas felt like the words were just tumbling uncontrollably out of her mouth.
Butcher nodded. “You know, during war everyone gets so tight, it’s like being lovers with your whole troop. No one apologizes for a little intimacy. Combat passion happens to a lot of soldiers.” She shrugged. “It is what it is. No guilt. No worries.”
“Is that what this is, a war?”
“Hell yeah. When every day is a struggle to survive, it’s a war. When we turn to others sharing the same gruesome sights, it bonds us in a way nothing else can. Believe me. I’ve seen people do things to each other you can’t even imagine.”
“Ever seen them eat each other?”
“Not like this. This is…” She shook her head. “Madness.”
“What about the way our government is handling it? How the military is no better than the man eaters?”
“It’s typical military precautions. Isolate. Neutralize. Destroy. Only our government has chosen to just destroy people and the smaller towns as a means to keep whatever the fuck this is from spreading. They won’t decimate big cities because it would be way too expensive to rebuild. We’ve done this in so many other countries, we’re pros at it by now.”
“But to kill our own citizens?”
“From what I’ve seen, Dallas, we’re fighting an enemy who feels no pain, can outwait us, outlast us, and double its numbers every day. We don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell if we can’t contain it here in California. Whoever attacked us chose brilliant locations. The coastal ghouls will move normal and south.”
“We call them man eaters.”
This made Butcher grin. “Oh, I like that.”
“It’s true. They only bite us and eat us.”
Butcher cocked her head. “I never realized that. Interesting.”
Looking over Butcher’s shoulder at the other two who were lightly snoring, Dallas said, “We need to get them up. At twenty miles a day, it’s gonna take us two weeks to get out of here.”
An hour later, they were following a tree-lined mountain pass. Although they knew travel by day was risky, they also knew they had little choice but to take that chance. Moving around at night was an incredibly slow endeavor. They needed to make up some of that time by letting the horses out on a full gallop. To be safe, they would run the horses from one grouping of trees to the next and so on. By mid-afternoon, they were
nearly to Century City.
As the horses crested a large hill, Dallas pulled Morgana to a halt.
“What is it?” Roper asked, pulling alongside her.
“Over there. On the frontage road. Is that a Hummer?”
Everyone shielded their eyes as they looked.
“It is,” Einstein said, “and it looks like…are those eaters around it?”
No one answered right away.
“I think so,” Butcher said quietly. “They don’t seem to be leaving it. We need to get closer.”
Riding down the hill and east to a smaller knoll, the riders were able to get a better look.
Standing all around the Hummer were a dozen man eaters moaning and beating on the windows with shredded fingertips and bloody stumps.
“Oh shit.”
“Is there someone in there?”
Einstein replied first. “Must be. Otherwise, they’d have no interest.”
“Well, I sure do,” Dallas said.
Everyone stared at her.
“If we had a Hummer, we could travel much more quickly during the day. We could get out of here in a day.”
“Until we came upon other Hummers. Then what?”
“When is the last time we’ve even seen two of them in the same area? Einstein said it himself our military is stretched too thin to adequately cover a disaster of this magnitude.”
“He’s right,” Butcher replied. “This is all a stop gap measure while they find a way to secure the borders, but Dallas has a good point. We could move much more quickly with a vehicle that is allowed to travel the roads.”
“Are you all suggesting we actually go down there and kill those things?” Roper asked.
Dallas and Butcher looked at each other before nodding.
“I think it’s a bad idea to leave the horses. It’s only a matter of time till you won’t be able to get gas and we’re safer off the streets.” Roper said.
Dallas turned in the saddle. “You aren’t down with this at all?”
“I didn’t say that. I just think the horses are still our safest bet. They may not be the fastest, but they don’t require fuel and they keep us out of sight.”
Dallas considered this a moment. “The Hummer wasn’t worth splitting up from Roper and she had a good point about the horses. They would need them to get over through the mountain pass.
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