by Henson, Lynn
“Thanks.”
“Oh, and I’m looking forward to lunch,” he added.
“Hope you like Indian food,” she replied sounding a little bit more cheery.
He walked through the upstairs rooms and quickly determined which window offered the best view of the street. He made himself comfortable and looked out the window for any signs of the person he saw.
It was sunny outside and the sky was clear. These conditions made it easy to see what was happening outside. Which was absolutely nothing. After fifteen minutes he’d grown bored of looking outside. It might have been more interesting if cars drove by, or there were people walking their dogs but there was none of that. It was like staring at a three-dimensional painting and Blake could feel his attention waning. He looked behind him searching for distraction and was surprised to see Bob lying on the floor, with his forward two paws neatly placed in front of him.
“Hi, Bob,” he called out to the cat.
Bob blinked at him lazily in reply and looked over at a different part of the room, obviously uninterested.
He looked back out into the street and let out a sigh. Wherever that person had gone, they weren’t coming out anymore. He looked around at the different houses on the street while trying to direct a majority of his attention to the house he’d last seen the figure go behind. That particular house was painted dark purple but was otherwise remarkably plain looking. It looks like a giant shoebox. And what, was purple paint on sale when they decided to paint that place? Shit. He looked back at Bob who was staring at him condescendingly somehow. At least, that’s how it felt to Blake. He sat up a little straighter and tried to focus on looking outside.
A half hour later, the walkie-talkie broke up his tedium.
“Blake, I got lunch ready if you want it. I’ll bring it to you, ok?” the device squawked.
“Thanks, I’d appreciate that,” he replied, excited at the prospect of something to do.
After a few minutes, he saw her exit the house and walk towards his door. He got up and stormed downstairs, skidding to a halt at the front door. He opened it to see Lisa holding a plate of various vegetabalish objects covered in steaming brown paste. She had her walkie-talkie up to her head, and then lowered it.
“Come in, come in,” he recommended as he stepped back to clear the doorway.
She came in and he closed the door behind her. “I’m watching the street from upstairs,” he told her, taking the plate of food from her. He started up the stairs.
“Yeah, Tiffany is doing the same thing,” she replied, following him up.
“This smells pretty good. What is it?”
“Vindaloo,” she answered, smiling. “Just a little taste of home.”
“India?”
“No, Artesia.”
“Huh.”
He reoccupied his position at his window, peering out seriously before taking up the fork and sampling the various vegetables in the dish.
She sat near him cross-legged, watching him eat. “Like it?”
He nodded, putting more into his mouth. “Never had anything quite like it. I haven’t really eaten Indian food before.”
“For the first half of my life, that’s all we ate,” she confessed, her eyes getting a faraway look.
“What, this stuff for ten years? It’s alright, but I don’t think it’s THAT good,” he quipped.
“Indian food, retard. Not just vindaloo,” she said reproachfully.
“I know, I know. Just a little joke,” he apologized.
“Ha ha,” she replied, unimpressed. “When I started going to school, I wanted to eat anything but Indian food. I was so worried about fitting in and trying new things I sort of became anti-Indian for a while.”
“You became racist against your own race?” he asked in disbelief.
“That makes it sound like I’m burning houses down. No, it’s not really like that. I don’t hate Indians. I just wanted to separate myself from them so I could be more like the people here. Does that make sense?”
He shrugged at that. “I can’t really pretend to understand it. I’ve lived here my entire life, so I’ve never really been in that situation.”
“If you ever get to go to a foreign country and try to live there for a while, you might be able to understand,” she replied thoughtfully. “So I just started ignoring other Indians if I came across some. And I tried to act American. But these past few days... I’ve been thinking a lot about the food I grew up with and I wanted to taste it again so bad.”
He nodded, setting aside the empty plate. “It’s still who you are. But you’ve kind of grown to be something more, right?”
“Yes. I think I’m coming to realize that,” she smiled a little.
There was a burst of static and the walkie-talkie said, “Hey guys! You seeing what I’m seeing?”
Blake directed his attention out the window. At first, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Lisa joined him at the window and spoke into the walkie-talkie, “What are we looking for Tiff?”
Then he saw it. There was a figure way down the street walking slowly. At this distance though, he couldn’t make out any features or which way it was walking. “There’s someone down the street,” The walkie squawked.
“Oh my god,” Lisa stammered, “What are we going to do?”
“Let’s just watch,” Blake said with a lowered voice. “We can’t tell from here if that’s a zombie or a person.”
She stared out the window at the figure with a horrified expression on her face. As they watched together over the next five minutes, it became clear that the person was walking towards them. “Ohmagodohmagodohmagod,” Lisa confirmed, “Now what??”
“It’s coming this way!” the walkie-talkie crackled.
“Well, even if it comes right to the door, it can’t get in,” Blake reasoned. “We can probably just ignore it.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right,” Lisa said with obvious relief.
“Hey, what are we going to do about the zombie?” the walkie-talkie wanted to know.
“We’re going to just ignore it because it can’t come in any way,” Lisa replied.
“Wait a second,” the walkie-talkie objected, “What about when our roommates come back? Someone’s going to have to take care of that thing eventually.”
“Shit. She’s right,” Blake sighed. “Ummm... well, in that case, we can either try to get rid of it ourselves or we could just wait for someone to come back and let them deal with it.”
“Let’s let them deal with it,” Lisa suggested.
“But wouldn’t you feel bad about dropping this into someone else’s lap?” Blake pointed out, “Don’t you feel like you’re not pulling your own weight?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lisa asked sounding slightly outraged.
“I don’t mean you in particular,” he tried to explain, “It’s just that if the world doesn’t go back to normal sometime soon, then everyone is going to have to learn how to handle those things. So if we continue to pass the buck to other people, what if those other people decide it would be easier to get by without so many dependents?”
She looked at him like he’d grown a third eye in the middle of his forehead.
“Well, it’s true,” he further elaborated. “Assuming the worst case scenario where this situation becomes the world we live in, wouldn’t you want to start developing a skill set where you can have the confidence to be able to know what to do without relying on someone else?”
“This sucks,” she observed, “My parents said as long as I became an engineer, all would be well. They never said anything about this.”
“Helloooooooooo?” the walkie-talkie demanded.
“Alright!” she replied to her walkie-talkie, agitated. “We’re going to think of something.”
“I was just asking,” came the hurt reply after a moment.
Lisa thrust the walkie-talkie back at him, and Blake accepted it, wisely not saying anything else.
The pe
rson had shambled close enough for them to see that it used to be a woman, and she was wearing what Blake thought of as “The little black dress”. She was barefoot except for a broken high heel shoe that heroically hung by a strap around one ankle. Her hair had been made up but had become disheveled with random strands that had broken loose. A pearl necklace contrasted with the dried blood that was caked all over her shoulders. Part of her neck was missing which caused her head to hang down at an unnatural angle. Despite her head hanging low, he was somehow sure that she was looking right at him.
“I guess we could lure it out of our street and then just outrun it when it’s far enough away,” Blake surmised. He grabbed his backpack and headed for the stairs. Lisa took a breath and then got up to follow him.
“You just stay here,” he protested.
“No. Uh... I mean I want to, but we’re not supposed to go out alone,” she said, sounding like she was trying to talk herself into going with him.
“Well, alright,” he said trying not to let the relief he felt show. “Try to stay close to me but definitely give the zombie a wide berth.”
She nodded vigorously, eyes wide.
He headed down the stairs and out the door, holding it open for Lisa. He closed it quietly behind them and checked on the zombie again. The zombie had definitely spotted them and was making slow but steady progress directly towards him.
“What are you guys doing?” the walkie-talkie crackled.
“We’re going to lure it away from here and try to lose it,” he replied into the device.
He moved in a wide circle around it to the right and the zombie turned to follow him. He could hear Lisa maintaining a position behind him, trying to keep him between her and the shambling horror. They were able to easily keep well ahead of it and lead it back down the street. He tried not to look at its face too closely because the look it had made him feel like a cheeseburger.
They were careful to maintain their distance from it, and the zombie obediently continued its slow pursuit of the pair. Because the damn thing walked so slow, it took about ten minutes to make it to the end of the street. The nervousness was starting to wear off because, despite the grotesque state of the zombie, it behaved predictably. Even Lisa seemed to have calmed down considerably since beginning their endeavor despite the occasional gagging noises she was making. They got clear of their street and lured it down a different street. Blake started looking around for a good opportunity to get it trapped somehow so they could return to their houses when the walkie-talkie blared to life again.
“Hey, guys? Are you almost done? Because I see someone coming this way,” the device blurted out.
“Who is it?” he asked trying to keep the alarm out of his voice.
“I don’t know,” came the reply, “But I think she’s human. She doesn’t move like a zombie.”
“You hear that?” he asked Lisa. “We gotta wrap this up.”
“Yeah,” she said after a moment, “Follow me, I think I found a good way to lose this thing.”
He heard her start running and he turned his back on the zombie to chase after her. She was leading them towards a two-story house that had bushes running around the perimeter. They ran up the walk and into the front yard of the property, continuing up until they reached the front door.
“Now what?” he said expectantly.
“Wait until it comes in,” she replied without taking her eyes of their pursuer.
Having to wait was maddeningly frustrating, but finally, the zombie walked into the bushes around the house trying to reach them and got tangled up. It lost balance trying to walk through the bushes to get at them. The bushes rustled and shook while the zombie growled menacingly at them.
“Ugh,” Blake said annoyed, “Too slow. Let’s speed this up. Stay here.”
He moved closer to the zombie so that he was a few feet away from it, relying on the bush to keep the thing from being able to touch him. It focused on him, reaching out with emaciated bony hands stained with gore. He could smell her foulness from where he stood and tried to ignore it.
“Hey! Hey!” he encouraged it as he tried to maneuver it through the gap in the bushes. It turned and walked more parallel to the bushes in order to chase him all while making small gurgling noises as it would reach out to try to grab him.
“I guess depth perception is kind of a problem for you,” he observed.
He walked past the opening and backed away until the zombie finally entered the walkway, tearing free of the bushes. Lisa ran over to the corner of the front yard and threw her leg over the bush causing it to squish down. She got the other leg over and the bush caught her pants leg and she went down in a heap on the other side. Blake lured the zombie a little more towards the house and then ran towards Lisa.
“Ow,” she reported.
He found a small gap between bushes and shimmied through it. “You ok?” he asked, helping her up.
“Yeah,” she replied. They ran back down the street. He spared a glance back at their zombie and saw that it was still confounded by the plants in the garden. “Good job!” he praised.
“You too,” she replied. They ran back to their street and as they approached their houses, Blake got out his walkie-talkie again.
“Tiffany! We’re almost there! What’s happening?” he yelled into the device.
“I’m glad you’re back,” the device said gratefully, “I think that girl went into your house!”
“Oh shit,” he said.
He sprinted the rest of the way to the door and tried it. It was locked. Lisa trotted up next to him panting.
“You didn’t lock it?!” she asked in disbelief.
“We don’t have the key for the door for this house,” he explained, frustrated. “There’s supposed to always be someone inside all the time so we can lock the door.”
“Let’s go next door,” he determined.
Lisa opened the door for them and after securing it behind them, they ran upstairs to find Tiffany peeking out the window like a frightened kitten. The relief on her face was apparent when they burst into her room. Tiffany got up and leaped towards Lisa who looked surprised as she got caught up in a fierce bear hug.
“I’m so glad you’re back!!” she proclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Gack,” Lisa replied.
“Oh, sorry,” Tiffany apologized as she released her.
“You’re good, you’re good,” Lisa insisted, “Just wasn’t expecting that.” She smiled at her and Tiffany beamed one of her own right back at her.
“So you saw that person go into our house?” Blake asked.
Tiffany nodded rapidly. “Yup! When you guys left the street she ran right up to the other house and went inside.”
“Do we go in there and take it back?” Lisa asked, sounding nervous again.
“I don’t think so,” Blake replied. “We don’t know who’s in there and what they’re capable of. I think we have to wait for everyone else to come back and then decide what we’re going to do.”
“Yeah, I think so too,” Lisa agreed, looking immediately more relaxed.
“H-hello?” the walkie-talkie said in a small female voice.
They all looked at the device in shock.
“Is anyone there? Please? I need help.”
“Answer her,” Tiffany whispered insistently to Blake.
“Me? Why me?” Blake complained.
“You’ve been doing good so far. Now come on, see what she wants,” she insisted.
He stared at the walkie-talkie in his hand for a moment, then spoke into it, “What do you want?”
“I’ve been shot. Please, I need help,” came the reply.
He looked at Lisa and Tiffany. “You’re in our house.”
“I... I know. I didn’t know what else to do. Please... it hurts...”
“You’ve locked us out. How are we supposed to help you?” Blake countered.
“I’ll let you in. Please hurry...”
Blake lowered the
walkie-talkie and looked at the girls again.
“You’re not going to go over there, are you?” Lisa asked incredulously.
“If she’s been shot, she’s going to need our help,” Blake said uncertainly.
“She’s lying! Who knows what she might do?” Lisa retorted.
“But if she’s telling the truth...” Blake replied.
“There’s no way to know,” Lisa said, cutting him off. “And it isn’t worth risking your life to find out either. I say we ignore her until everyone comes back.”
“Besides,” Tiffany added while looking apologetically at Blake, “We don’t have any medical supplies. That’s why Kim and them went into town, remember? We couldn’t help her even if we wanted to.”
“Uh... That’s... true, but...” he stammered.
“But what? You’ve been outvoted,” Lisa said triumphantly. “Just try to relax Blake. You’ll see that this is the best way to go.”
They’re right of course. What is it about me that always has to go trying to save a damsel in distress? I really am Captain Save-a-Ho. He sighed and lacking anything better to do, looked out the window again. The street wasn’t empty. At the far end was a whole lot of people.
“Oh, crap,” he said solemnly. Lisa and Tiffany looked up in alarm and joined him at the window.
“This is not good,” Lisa agreed.
“What are we going to do?” Tiffany asked, turning white.
“Well, we’re... we’re not going to panic,” he said, panicky. “Try to stay calm. Um... they’re out there, we’re in here, so we should stay in here.”
Lisa and Tiffany both nodded at this.
“And... uh, maybe we should cover the windows and push stuff in front of the door. Make it look like no one’s here,” he further rationalized.
Lisa and Tiffany both sprang into action and zoomed about the house closing blinds and turning off anything that made noise. Blake followed after a moment and dragged the couch in front of the door. He returned to the window and peeked through the blinds. The zombie mob had come closer and now filled half the street. They were definitely shambling towards where they were staying.
There was a knock at the door. Surprised, Blake looked through the peephole and saw a woman he didn’t recognize. She had sandy blonde hair and was attractive despite looking weather-beaten. She rapped at the door again while he was still looking through the hole which reflexively caused him to recoil from the door.