by M. Lorrox
The man looks nervous. He pleads with his hands. “No, she left a few minutes ago, said there was an emergency with her brother. I really can’t get a woman down here to help right now.” He shakes his head.
Sadie tries not to glare at him—tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though he could be some prick trying to get his jollies by asking a pretty woman to take her clothes off for him. Maybe that was his plan, until the woman’s friend butts in, sticking up for her and forcing him into an awkward situation. Is that you? Sadie looks to see what he shows. She sees some pain in his eyes and a softness in his stature.
Sadie turns to face Karen. “I’ll help. You can do this.” She points at the guard. “You stay there.” She looks back at Karen. “Sorry about all this.”
Karen forces a smile. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for; you saved my life.” She takes off her sneakers, pants, and top. She’s standing outside the apartment building in a teal thong and a plain white bra.
The man moves to change his viewing angle. “Your sock, the one on your swollen foot, please take it off.”
Karen grabs a hold of Sadie’s shoulder and leans on it while she lifts up her leg and pulls off the sock. She holds her foot out for inspection. Her ankle is swollen and red, but there’s no broken skin.
“Thank you. Now please turn around.”
She spins to face backward, limping, in nothing but her underwear and one sock, out in front of her home facing a busy street. She looks down the block and sees some embarrassed faces. Most look away or turn.
Karen feels bad for them. All of a sudden, she realizes that she feels powerful. She feels beautiful and mighty, standing in the sun in her undies. Like an Olympic athlete or a warrior. She’s standing unashamed in this inconvenience because she has gone through and survived a deadly ordeal.
The others—those embarrassed faces on the street and the guard to her building—they need for her to be cleansed. She is different now that she’s fought off a zombie. She has changed.
She is happy to be free of the clothes she wore when she was so very afraid back on that catwalk, the clothes she was injured in, that she was vulnerable in. Now that she’s lost those clothes, she’s found something else. She smiles. This feels good.
She takes off the other sock.
The man walks around her, looking for signs of open wounds. He sees none. Furthermore, there are no signs of blood on her anywhere at all—so the stains on her clothes must have come from the outside in. He nods his head. “Thank you, Karen. Please throw away your clothes.” He takes off his windbreaker. “You can wear this, just please bring it back down to me later.”
Karen picks up all her clothes and walks them to the garbage bin by the door. She looks at the guard, who holds out his thin jacket. “Thank you, but I don’t need it.” She takes a step toward the front door to her building, then pauses and turns. She looks at Sadie, her eyes glowing and shining with energy. “Thank you.”
Sadie just smiles and nods.
Karen looks over to the guard. “If there’s a woman who needs inspection again, you can ring me. Karen, in 212.”
The guard is putting his jacket back on, and a smile crosses his face. “Yes, I will. Thank you.”
Sadie watches Karen walk into the building—strong and confident. Damn, she’s got a nice ass. Mmm-hmm.
When Craig arrives at the ridge with Jess and Joe, he’s not entirely surprised to see Sophia and Eddy there waiting for them. “I thought you guys might beat us.”
Joe is surprised and winded. “How did they…?”
“They ran the long way, that’s how.”
Eddy gives Joe a big smile. They had indeed run the whole way, but it didn’t tire them. They even paused at another spot to look out over the valley. Sophia explained that the zombies get stalled when they hit the river, so there’s often a few moping around to shoot at.
Craig nods to Bill. “’Sup, bro.”
Eddy is surprised by how similar they look. Are they twins? They both have square jaws and cleft chins, brown hair and brown eyes, and massive arms. Those boys are strong…
Bill points out over the ridge with his binoculars in hand. “Spotted three walkers down by the south bend; they got a deer. It’s pretty gross.” He switches position and points to the right. “And there’s another one over by the big clearing.”
Craig nods and scrunches his face up like guys do when they’re trying to be more badass. “Nice.”
Jess chuckles. “You guys are so weird.”
They both look at her, and after a beat they both wink and click their cheeks at her.
“Wow.” Jess looks over to Sophia. “Thank you for being here. I don’t want to drown in their testosterone.”
Sophia huffs a laugh and nods. “I hear that!”
Eddy stands near the edge of the ridge, staring into the distant treetops. He’s nervous. If his dad found out what he was about to do, he’d kill him. Charlie hates guns and has always made it clear that killing was only ever to be done with honor—either for food or for protection, for yourself or for your family. Hell, Charlie says a prayer every time they get game when they go hunting. Eddy presses his lips together. This feels—wrong.
Killing is wrong. But…aren’t these already dead? They call them “the dead” and there is no cure—no way for them to return to who they were before being infected. And if you could magically roll back the brain damage brought on by the disease, half the zombies are all busted up or rotting anyway. There’s no going back for them. They’re dead. And dangerous. Even one of them can infect hundreds or thousands of people and turn them into more monsters. And it wouldn’t be an accident; any one of them would gladly attempt to eat and infect any person alive. Just because they’re not threatening me doesn’t mean they aren’t a threat to us all.
Eddy looks for the zombies Bill had mentioned by the “south bend.” Oh, there. Three zombies are huddled over a deer carcass, gorging themselves on it. That is gross. One just freed some flesh or an organ and is sitting on its knees eating. Its sundress is torn to shreds, barely hanging on to its shoulders, hanging low and exposing a breast. The dress, and the breast, is covered in dirt, filth, and now, deer’s blood. Wait, what? Someone is creeping up on me—don’t move—two of them? Let them startle you…
Bill and Craig both leap out toward Eddy and scream, “Ahhh!”
Eddy turns and puts on a face of terror for a second, then acts like he’s annoyed. “Jeez! You scared the crap outta me!”
The guys laugh.
Eddy looks concerned. “Do you think the zombies heard that?”
Bill shakes his head. “Naw, and if they did, they won’t try to cross the river here; it’s moving too fast.” He slaps Craig on the chest. “Hey, remember when we climbed down there and got the one to try and cross? And it got washed downstream?”
“Yeah, that was like, two weeks ago.”
“Yeah. Then we sniped it as it floated away. That was awesome.”
Craig shakes his head and looks back at Eddy. “And if there are any walkers on this side that crossed upriver, we’ve always got bullets ready for ’em.” He pats his revolver and smiles. He looks to Bill. “Hey, bro—”
Bill is looking through the binoculars again. “What?”
“We got a virgin here.” He claps his hand around Eddy’s shoulder.
Eddy’s pale face flushes to a faint pink. WHAT?
“Never shot a gun; never killed a zombie.”
Eddy breathes again. Oh, right. Asshole.
Bill turns to face Eddy, and then starts sniffing the air around him. “Yup, fresh meat!” The brothers start laughing together.
Eddy steps out of Craig’s grasp. “Well give me a gun, and let’s change that.”
Craig and Bill look at each other with exaggerated frowns, nodding. “Okay!”
Sophia has walked over to Eddy’s other side. She reaches out and touches his arm. “It’s pretty here, isn’t it?”
Eddy relaxes a
second and looks at her. Beautiful. He looks out over the ridge. It is pretty here. “Yeah. It is.” He slowly moves his hand to place it on the small of her back, but then he recoils, smiles, and places it there firmly, saying, “So romantic, except for the bloated zombies stuffing themselves on a cute little forest creature.”
They both laugh, and he slides his thumb up half an inch, rubbing it against her back, before pulling his arm away. Oh boy. This is fun, but what am I doing here? He smiles at Sophia.
She looks back at him with a slight grin. “Time to lose that virginity, wouldn’t you say?” She jabs him hard in the ribs.
It hurts, and Eddy groans. He turns to the group and says with all seriousness, “Gimme a gun, show me where the safety is…and, you know, all that.”
Everyone else smiles and laughs at him.
Craig nods. “Coming right up.” He grabs the Browning.
Joe walks over to Eddy. “It was hard the first time I shot one. Took a few tries to put it down. Now that I think about it, it was kinda rough.” Joe winces.
Eddy tilts his head and looks at him. “Thanks?”
Jess adds, “You’ll be fine. You’re a great shot. Aim center mass, and don’t be surprised if the zombies blow up when the bullets hit.”
Eddy’s eyes flash wide, and he uses both hands to express his bewilderment. “WHAT?”
Bill laughs. “Yeah, we hand-load our bullets. They’ve got a ton of heat on ’em.”
Eddy is stunned, imagining what a person would look like blowing up. Might find out soon enough.
Craig holds up the rifle to show Eddy. It has a wooden stock and a large scope on top. He shows him how to load it, cock it, and how to stand when shooting it.
Sophia takes a step back. “You got this.”
Eddy takes a deep breath and raises the rifle. He can hear a voice in his head; it’s his mom. “Always remember that you make your own decisions. Never let anyone make them for you.” Eddy pulls back the bolt, then pushes it forward, loading a fresh round in the chamber. He hears another voice, this time his dad. “Nature will turn you into a man. You need to work to become a good man.”
Eddy aims at the leftmost zombie of the three eating the deer. With a flick of his finger, he can deliver death to whatever he places in his sights. He feels powerful. He doesn’t feel like it’s wrong anymore. He feels like a hero. He feels like a man.
He pulls the trigger. The sound of the bullet firing echoes through the valley as his target looks up from the deer, startled. Eddy missed.
Shit. He lowers the rifle. Why are they cheering?
Eddy raises the rifle again, aims, and sees that he hit the zombie in the center, to the right of where he was aiming. Oh. He looks at the grass. It’s quite windy in the valley, and he didn’t notice. The remaining zombies are getting up.
“Take ’em all, Eddy!” Jess cries out.
Eddy adjusts his aim and fires again. This time the bullet hits just where he expects, center of the chest of the leftmost zombie. One more zombie remains—the one in the sundress.
Eddy looks at the zombie as it stands up. She looks surprised or maybe even scared. She looks like she was dressed for church when she was infected… IT, damn it, IT!
-BANG!-
He aimed for the head, and he had a bull’s-eye. Eddy can see a gray mist in the air as the headless body falls to the ground.
As the others cheer him, Eddy wants to throw up.
And then—he does.
Sadie parks the Jeep and closes the garage door. What a day. “Minnie, let’s give you a special bath. What do you say?”
Sadie glances back to Minnie—she’s fast asleep. Her skin is quite red from the burn. Poor baby.
Sadie walks around to the backseat, wakes up Minnie, and then helps her out of the Jeep and into the house. “C’mon, darling. I think you deserve an extra-special bath.”
Minnie yawns and nods.
Rusty trots over to the door, and as soon as he sees that Minnie is burned, he starts barking.
Sadie scolds him. “Rusty, be quiet. Minnie’s sleepy.”
He rubs against Minnie’s leg, and she pets him. “Can Rusty take a bath with me?”
Sadie has to think about this one for a second. She planned to give Minnie a sponge bath, of blood, to help her skin heal. There would be room in the tub for Rusty, and he indeed drinks blood like the rest of the family, but his hair would get all covered in it. Sadie looks down at Rusty. He looks dirty—probably not a good idea, although he would LOVE it.
Rusty is a very special “dog.” He looks like a dog, and acts like a dog most of the time, but he’s obviously not a normal dog. He flies. He can grow wings at will, then shed them into dust like they were just earth all along. He drinks blood like a vampire, heals minor injuries like a vampire, has strength like a vampire, but he loves sunlight and being outside. He’s too smart for his own good, and if all that weren’t enough, he’s apparently immortal. Charlie told Sadie the story of how he had met Rusty during the American Civil War, about the strange and stupefying things he saw Rusty do, and how Rusty rejuvenated after being grievously mutilated.
To top it all off, Rusty hasn’t changed or aged even a second in the century she’s known him. Not even a vampire can accomplish a feat like that.
As far as Sadie knows, he’s the only thing like him; there’s nothing else even close to being as weird—even in the vampire world. Vampirism affects only humans, but Rusty is like a vampire-dog-mutant-thing. Charlie insists that Rusty’s peculiarities never be told, and Sadie agrees. Any researcher would KILL for a chance to study Rusty, and he’d be treated like a lab rat, a self-healing, never-aging lab rat. Forever.
Rusty barks and wags his tail while awaiting Sadie’s answer.
“No, his fur will get all messy. But he can sit nearby, and you can pet him.” Sadie looks at Rusty. “And when we’re all done, we can give Rusty the leftover blood.”
At that, Rusty takes off in front of the girls and scampers into the bathroom.
Sadie squeezes Minnie’s hand tighter as they enter the bathroom, then she releases it. “Now you get undressed—” she grabs Charlie’s robe off a hook, “—and wrap this around you if you’re cold. I’ll be back in a couple minutes with your bath.”
Downstairs, Sadie places a teakettle of water on the stove, then turns it on high. She looks out the window. The lawn is mowed. It looks nice. Good job, Charlie. Hmm, I wonder where he is…
Sadie zones out, and soon the teapot begins to scream. She turns off the heat, turns to the fridge, and grabs the pitcher of fresh blood from the top shelf. We’re running low. Good thing there’s more coming. She pours most it into a large bowl and then adds the hot water. She carries it upstairs to a waiting little girl wrapped in her daddy’s robe.
Sadie can’t help but smile when she sees Minnie. Childhood is so magical; I love being a mom! “Look how cute you are!”
Rusty is curled up in the extra material of the robe. He wags his tail.
Sadie gently brushes him aside and off the robe with one foot. “Come now, hop in the tub. I’ve got a whole bowl of warm blood to soothe your skin.”
As Minnie drops the robe and climbs in the tub, Rusty stands with his head tilted, looking up at Sadie. He might have been about to bark, but Minnie’s little hand shoots out from over the edge of the tub and onto his head, petting him. He moves closer to the tub and sits down while Sadie settles in and soaks a sponge in the warm liquid.
Charlie hears Sadie and Minnie in the bathroom, but he doesn’t get up to say hello to them. In fact, as soon as he hears any new sound, he tries to not think about it. He’s sitting in Zazen meditation, letting his thoughts flow over him as they arise, preparing for his focused mediation. On the little table in front of him, he has an unlit cone of incense, an electronic timer, and a few polished stones.
The timer makes a quiet sound—that of a temple-bell. -dong-
Time to begin. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, smelling the incense.
He thinks back to Japan, back to when he first learned this style of meditation.
He imagines a series of images: the ukikori, floating ice of spring; taue-uta, the song of paddy planting in the summer; the akatonbo, red dragonfly of autumn; and sokobie, the deep cold of winter. He remembers Moriko’s face, and he lets it fade away, but he hears her voice. “Compassion.”
Charlie opens his eyes and starts his meditation. With each slow inhale, he thinks of a person, and with each slow exhale, he thinks of compassion for them. First, members of his family: Sadie, Eddy, Minnie. Then his older children: Jonathan, Alexander, Jessica, Casandra…
Eventually, his friends: Skip and June, Peter, Cheasequah, Waya, Engrid, Moriko, Muramasa…
After he thinks of compassion for those close to him, he imagines strangers and imagines it for them. Then groups of people in houses—having family meals. Then whole streets of people living their lives. Then towns and cities—with several generations of people living within. Then, he imagines the planet and everyone on it. Finally, he dissolves the image of the earth and the notion of physical boundaries.
With each breath, in and out, he tries to feel endless compassion.
He continues for a few minutes before returning back to his presence now—sitting in the bedroom, in his own house, with his little family. He lets his mind relax back into nonattachment meditation, letting any thought or emotion arise—only to then let it go and subside.
Until he hears Mary whistle from outside. She’s here.
He stands up and stretches, then walks out of the bedroom to let her in.
After a couple seconds, he jogs back into the bedroom and puts on pants.
A few minutes later, he knocks on the bathroom door. “Sadie, dear, Mary is here. She’s downstairs.”
The door opens. Sadie is sitting on the floor by the tub with Rusty. A naked Minnie is in the tub, wet with the watered-down blood. She’s petting Rusty and getting his head bloody, but he doesn’t mind—not at all.
Sadie looks up. “Would you mind taking over? Minnie got a little burn; the blood is helping.”