by William Bebb
*****
Josey turned the large wrench and heard the tank on the back of the truck groan. “Almost got it,” he grunted, as the last rusted nut began to turn. The big tank creaked, squeaked, and shifted slightly, yet still stayed on the back of the truck as he tossed the large nut into the trash dump.
Looking nervously back where he'd discovered the Redneck Gourmets hideout, he repressed a shudder. There didn't seem to be any movement in the underbrush that led to their trailer and for that he was grateful. He pulled out the last few pieces of nicotine gum and decided to wait before using one and put them back in his coveralls pocket. Getting up off the empty paint can he'd been using as a stool took a while. All his muscles ached and he felt exhausted.
Testing his bad knee, he limped slowly back to the passenger side of the truck asking, “Is the coast clear?”
“The closest are maybe a little more than half a mile away,” Maria answered, staring out of the open passenger side door.
Josey shielded his eyes and saw them clearly. They were both dressed in black, similar to what Gilmer had worn, and seemed fairly energetic as they stumbled and trotted closer. He estimated they'd be at the truck in less than ten minutes. Sighing heavily, he climbed up into the truck cab and sat down behind the steering wheel.
“Okay, I have the tank loose. When we start rolling it should fall off one side of the truck or the other, after that pulling the colonel's trailer should be easy. But even if the tank doesn’t fall off I’ve got enough chains that we could probably pull it anyway; hopefully, before this valley gets nuked or we get shot or eaten.” He paused and a horrified look came over his face.
“What is it?” She looked around the truck to see if she’d missed something that he'd spotted. “What's wrong?”
“I just had a horrible thought. What if-,” he swallowed hard, “it’s not just down here where the dead are attacking people. What if we pull the trailer all the way up and out of the valley only to discover the situation is just like this up there? What if it’s not just happening down here? If the whole world is being overrun with undead and murderous crazy people what do we do then? Where would we go?”
She smiled and patted his arm. “You worry too much. I don’t think the immigration people would have bothered with me and my neighbors if the whole world was being overrun by monsters. You so Loco.” Her smile faded as she glanced out the truck's back window and appeared doubtful. “Will this plan of yours really work?”
“Want the truth?” he asked while clutching the steering wheel in his trembling hands. “I'll tell you the truth if you really want to hear it, but you might not like it.”
She leaned back in the passenger seat and moved some hair out of her face as she considered. After a few seconds, she shook her head saying, “No, don't tell me the truth.”
“Okay, that's good. In that case, everything will definitely workout- 100% guaranteed,” Josey said confidently, staring at the keys hanging from the ignition.
The sun was directly overhead and the truck felt and smelled like a large stinky oven.
Leaning across the truck's bench seat, Josey sniffed Maria and asked, “You're not wearing perfume, are you?”
“I think the heat must be getting to you, Gringo. And quit sniffing me. This is no time or place for romance,” Maria said blushing, yet unable to keep from smiling. She'd been thinking a lot about this odd young man she had only recently met. He was not much older than her and his brown eyes and hair were very appealing, but the situation was all so insane that she had repeatedly pushed those thoughts away. She glanced over and saw him smiling at her with his boyish face and smiled back, unable to help herself.
“You didn't answer my question. I don't know if it’s just in comparison to the smells coming from the trash dump or the big tank of baked sewage, behind us, but I think you smell nice,” he said, blushing.
Maria looked at him with a confused expression and then stared out the windshield at the distant men trotting toward them.
She didn't answer the question and in the awkward silence that followed he cursed himself for being such an idiot.
Josey rarely had dates since he was a painfully shy young man who never knew what to say to women. On TV and in movies it always looked easy to meet women. He grew so lonely that he'd even tried several online dating companies. Unfortunately, when a woman found out his occupation they avoided him like the plague. But even when a woman seemed interested in Josey invariably things never worked out. His last date had been the most embarrassing event in his life and until meeting Maria, in the midst of a zombie outbreak, he hadn't even had the nerve to try speaking to women.