“I wouldn’t shed a tear.” she said but stalked off with the wolf trailing her.
When everyone calmed down and started examining each other, Cody eyed the boy coldly.
“Never put the lives of the tribe in danger.” he said quietly.
“But…” Gordon started to protest
“Never put the lives of the tribe in danger.” Cody repeated then turned away.
Harper and Vanessa were fussing over the newcomers who were trying their best to stop sniffling and crying. They weren’t babies anymore, they’d seen things over the past few months. They’d grown up hard and fast since September. You had to or you died.
The three children stood in awe of the older kids and the magnificent animals. It was like something out of one of those movies they weren’t supposed to watch but did anyway after their parents were asleep. The chittering of monkeys caused them to turn their attention to a boy in a wheelchair. Four cute little brown furballs were hanging off of him, peeking at them with open curiosity.
“Welcome to Piedmont Animal Sanctuary.” he said, in his best impression of John Hammond, welcoming his guests to Jurassic Park. He laughed as the monkeys swarmed over them, checking their pockets and hair for something to eat or steal. Clara shrieked but it turned to a giggle and the capuchins chattering and playfulness made them forget, for just a moment, the horror they’d just survived. The foxes were curious too and came close, their inquisitive noses sniffing out the new smells, their long, bushy tails wagging happily when they started being petted. They were used to attention from hundreds of kids a day in the petting zoo but hadn’t been getting much lately. They relished the human touch and curled themselves around the trio, whining happily and licking away the salty tears.
23
Gordon and Harper
“Hi, Harper.”
She turned to find Gordon staring at her and wondered how long he’d been there. She set the pitchfork aside, brushed her long blonde hair back out of her eyes. She’d been working with Bert, mucking out stalls and lugging water buckets for the petting zoo all morning. Her back ached and her hands were calloused from the daily routine. Her clothes were dirty and in need of a good wash. She loved it. She loved the zoo and the animals, especially Bert.
Teddy, the buffalo lowered his huge head to grab a mouthful of feed pellets from his freshly filled trough. Cody had been working him all morning dragging downed trees out of the woods. The shaggy beast was old and tired and deserved his rest but not until he devoured his lunch.
“Hi, Gordon.” she forced a smile at the boy, although her patience was running thin. Most of the others didn’t even try to be nice to him anymore and the room temperature seemed to drop about twenty degrees whenever he and Swan were in it together.
He’d either skipped out on his chores or half assed them again. No way was he done this early in the day. He leaned casually against the gate post of the buffalo enclosure, hands in the pocket of his khakis. He wore a multi pocketed vest and a button-down shirt, his hair carefully combed. He looked like he was posing for an LL Bean catalog. He never wore his armor, she wasn’t even sure he had any, and all the clothes he’d taken from the surplus store were overpriced brands that didn’t hold up very well to everyday work. They were for city people who wanted to look like they were outdoorsmen. Too many pockets and zippers and buttons. He was supposed to be cleaning out Millie’s pen. Cody had taken him off of the wood chopping detail and had him working with the animals. They’d hoped he would settle in and bond with one of them. So far, that hadn’t happened.
She sighed. They’d get nothing out of him again today. Until it was time to eat anyway. Then he’d load his plate with food and return for seconds. When he was done, he would go to his room to do whatever it was he did up there.
“Aren’t you tired of this place? The flies and the crap and the creaky old house?”
“I like it here.” she said, running her hand over Teddy’s head. “It’s safe. We have everything we need, and I get to spend all the time I want with Bert.”
“Bert,” Gordon snorted. “He’s gross. Always farting and drawing flies to him.”
Harper cut her eyes at him disapprovingly.
Sensing he was losing ground, Gordon changed his tact. Even with her messy hair and dirty clothes, she was still the prettiest girl left alive. The only one who had a little something in the chest department pressing against her armor.
“Yeah, he is pretty cool to watch, maybe if you changed his diet, he wouldn’t be so gassy.”
“Maybe,” she answered.
“But, you know, there’s a whole town right down the road. There are some pretty nice houses just sitting empty. A couple of generators from the hardware store and we’d be set.” he said slyly.
“I don’t think Bert would like living in town, hitting his head on stoplights and all that. This is the best place for him and all of the other animals too.”
“It’s not too far to visit.” Gordon pressed. “They could stay here, we could live in town. Have you seen the stuff just sitting in the jewelry store? There’s gold necklaces and diamond earrings and platinum watches just waiting to be plundered.”
“I don’t care about that kind of stuff.” she shrugged, wiped her hands on her dirty tactical pants and armor pads. “It’s kind of useless, really.”
“Yeah, but surely you’d rather wear something besides those clothes and hockey pads.”
“They’re comfortable, and once you get used to the pads, they aren’t so bad. You should get you some, just in case the zombies ever get inside the gates.” she told him.
He scoffed. “I wouldn’t be caught dead in those rags.”
He tugged at the hem of his vest, trying to draw her eyes towards him. She obviously had the hots for him. She never looked him in the eyes. She was hiding her feelings. Probably didn’t want to break Cody’s heart, he thought smugly. He knew they all but worshipped Mr. High and Mighty.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is, we should leave, just you and me. You can come back anytime you want and visit Bert. We’ll live it up, eat good food, have hot water and surround ourselves with all the finest things. Sooner or later someone is going to come through and rescue us. We can move into one of those fortified towns and live like civilized people. If we stay out here, we’ll miss them.”
His tone was sharp, almost condescending. He’d watched his Dad reduce people who owed him money to tears and begging with the same tone and he copied it the best he could. Maybe she just needed a firm hand to get her priorities straight. Maybe she needed to be told what to do.
“You think we aren’t civilized?” she smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
“No, not you,” he said, backtracking a little. “These other kids. Sleeping and eating with the animals. It’s just nasty. You deserve better than that. You deserve better than that creepy house. It makes so much noise I can barely sleep for all the creaking. It’s going to fall or burn down someday; I don’t want you to be in it when it happens. That’s all. We should think about going someplace better.”
“I’ll be just fine, Gordon. We’ll be just fine. I don’t need to be rescued and I don’t want to live in town, there’s no protection from the zombies if they wander through. We have a good life here, and you could too if you tried just a little.”
Harper wanted him to join them, not be an outsider. She wanted for everyone to get along and be happy. For everyone to do their fair share, it wasn’t that hard if everybody pitched in and helped.
“It doesn’t matter who you were before this happened.” she continued. “All that matters is who you are going to be. I don’t want to go to a fortified town and have people trying to tell me what to do. I’m not going to give up Bert or go back to being a cheerleader. My parents are dead. All of my family are dead. If we did find a town, they would put me in foster care or something and split everyone up. This is my family now, Gordon. It can be yours too, if you would try. We don’t ask for much, just do you
r part.”
Gordon shook his head and she could see he would never understand the gift they’d been given. He would never be happy living like animals as he thought of it. He wanted the old world back but it was gone. She almost felt sorry for him.
“Look, I’ve got a lot of work to do and you probably do too.”
Bert strolled lazily towards them. The giraffe angled slightly in his direction, in an attempt to mash him between his body and the gate. Gordon stepped swiftly aside. He wasn’t finished talking to her but the stupid giraffe filled the space between them and put his back towards Gordon. He lifted his short tail and dropped a load of manure in the boy’s direction. Gordon jumped out of the way but didn’t avoid getting dung splattered on his pants. He hated the giraffe.
Harper stepped around him and headed for the barn with Bert following close behind. Her bodyguard. He gritted his teeth in frustration but grabbed the pitchfork and headed over to knock out the jobs Mr. High and Mighty had assigned him for the day. Putting on his best clothes had been wasted on her, she hadn’t even noticed. He’d play along, though. He’d bide his time and wait for his chance. He’d prove to her once and for all that he was the man for her. Once he got her away from all this drudgery and back to civilization, she’d change her mind. She’d never want to come back and he certainly never would. Not unless he had a gun to put a bullet in Bert’s head.
24
Gordon
Gordon was miserable and smelled like animal dung. He’d been trying for a week or so but his plan of going along to get along was just too much work. He hated it here. It was cold, his room was drafty and he never seemed to be able to get Harper alone. If he didn’t know any better, he would think she was avoiding him. Sure, this place was maybe a little better than the room where he’d been trapped for months but not by much. Or weeks, as they kept correcting him. Whatever. It felt like months. He had nothing in common with the others. After his little talk with Harper he’d tried to fit in but he was simply too civilized to be with these people. They all thought they were Tarzan or something the way they ate, slept and bathed with the filthy animals. Hell, they were becoming animals. Even the new kids were running around with the foxes and wolf cubs like they were harmless puppies, not dangerous animals that could turn on you. It only took them a week and they were nearly as savage as the rest of the idiots.
He was tired of hauling feed and cleaning up after them. He ought to just refuse. He’d chop wood, he could see the sense in that, but there was no reason to keep these stupid animals. They should drive them all out of the gate and be done with them. What would they do if he just stopped working, let Swan beat him up? She’d just got lucky last time. He hadn’t been ready. If she tried it again, he’d knock her teeth out.
The only job he didn’t really mind was stabbing zombies at the front gate. Whenever they started piling up, wandering in off the road for some unknown reason, they would have to go to the entrance and spear them in the head. The coyotes and buzzards and whatever else ate dead things would drag them off and have a feast. Gordon liked that job and would even volunteer for it. The others would get it over quickly, it stank pretty badly up there, but he liked to make it last. He’d jab them in the eyes, watch the gooey orbs run down their cheeks and was fascinated as they ignored their blindness and still tried to snap at him. Sometimes there was a woman zombie that wasn’t too messed up. He didn’t care if she was missing an arm or something, he’d learned to ignore bones sticking out and things like that. If they weren’t all rotten and gross, he’d hook the spear and rip their clothes off. He’d stab them in their hairy parts between the legs or poke their saggy boobs to see if they would deflate any more. Once he’d tried to count how many times he could stab one but got tired after fifty. It had holes everywhere but still tried to bite him. He wondered if he could tie one up, one that wasn’t too gross, and have a little grown up fun. The few magazines he’d brought with him were getting pretty worn out. He was fifteen, almost sixteen, the oldest of them all, and he had needs. But still, he didn’t think he could. He’d need help tying her down and besides, what if he caught something? What if the zombie virus was like an STD and his dong started rotting off? What he needed was for Harper to come to her senses and run off with him.
The rhino had nearly stepped on him twice while he daydreamed and cleaned out her enclosure. Stupid blind creature, and the flies! Buzzing around her ass then landing on his face. It was disgusting and demeaning. Then to top it off she had sideswiped him and knocked him down right into a pile of dung. Sure, he’d given her a little jab with the pitchfork to make her give him some working room, but it didn’t hurt her with that thick hide. Ungrateful half blind bitch, he thought.
They should be back in Putnam living it up. He’d been embarrassed when he saw the empty streets and the stores standing deserted after his rescue. All that food for the taking and he’d been surviving on army rations that were barely fit to eat. If he’d known there was only one of those zombies or how easy it was to kill, he could have gotten out. He would have, too. He would have figured it out sooner or later. He hated that Mr. High and Mighty had seen him living like he’d been. He’d seen all the girly magazines with the sticky pages. It was worse that he hadn’t told the others, like he had some big secret and was lording it over him. Like he was blackmailing him and would tell everyone if Gordon didn’t do everything he said. If he didn’t cut wood or clean the stalls.
Yeah, Gordy was so chicken he pooped in a box, slept right next to it and looked at dirty magazines all day. Speaking of chicken, did you choke yours very much, Gordy?
They’d all laugh at him and snicker behind his back. He hated them all.
The town had been deserted; he could have been a king when they came instead of a prisoner. All the zombies had chased the survivors down the road and had never come back. The few that were there were locked in the deserted buildings.
He cursed his father who’d run out and abandoned him and he cursed himself for not staying home that day. He’d gone along with him because the old man was going to kick the store owner out. He was going to shut him down for breach of contract and Gordon wanted to watch it happen. He wanted to see Gordon Lowery Senior, known as the Bulldog in certain circles, lower the hammer and watch the old shop keeper beg for another chance.
“He was late with the lease payment for the second time and that is grounds for termination.” His dad explained on the drive down to Putnam in his new Mercedes. “When I had the contract drawn up, I made sure our lawyers put that in the fine print. I’ve been waiting for over a year for him to be late again. That old junk shop he’s been running for the last decade has become prime real estate. I can double the rent with a health food store. We’re going to demand for him to immediately vacate the premises. I’ll show you how it’s done, son.”
The old shopkeeper had been wearing his stupid Proud Veteran hat and eating a greasy takeout breakfast at his desk when they confronted him. He’d done everything his dad had predicted and Gordon had a hard time keeping the grin off his face. He’d blustered, he’d gotten mad and finally he’d begged. His father had come down on him so hard the old man had gotten sick and had run to the bathroom. They had done a little fist bump when they heard him retching and his dad had mouthed pathetic then went out into the store to determine how he wanted to remodel it. Gordon had stayed in the office and was peeking in the drawers when he heard the snarl of something inhuman and his dad scream. There was a scuffle and when he looked out, his father was running out of the front door. Gordon yelled something, he couldn’t remember exactly what, and the bloody old store keeper turned towards him. He slammed the door and had been trapped for months. Or weeks as they claimed. Whatever. It felt like months.
Jokes on you Dad, he thought as he tossed another scoop of rhino dung into the wheelbarrow. He was probably out there wandering around with the rest of the undead in his expensive suit, shuffling around in his overpriced shoes, self-winding Rolex still keeping time
on his wrist.
He leaned on the shovel and thought about last night. He finally got her by herself but that hadn’t worked out so well. He knew it wasn’t visible, but he still felt the imprint of Harper’s hand when she’d slapped him. He just wanted a kiss. She was the only one old enough for him to be interested in, the only girl that had boobs, and she should be grateful for his attention. She didn’t have to be such a tease. She was always teasing Cody too, laughing at his jokes or agreeing with whatever he said. The infallible Cody. Mr. High and Mighty. What a prick.
Cody said we need more firewood.
Cody said we should each pick a skill and learn it from the books.
Cody said clean out the stall.
Cody said you have to cut hay.
Cody said it’s your turn to walk the fence.
Cody said you have to kill zombies at the front gate.
Cody said this.
Cody said that.
Cody, Cody, Cody.
Who put him in charge anyway? So what if he’d been a Boy Scout and had a few skills? So what if he knew the zoo better than anyone else? It was the end of the world and rules didn’t apply anymore. I’m almost a year older than him, it should go by seniority. Gordon thought. And we should be in town or back home. There were probably survivors there, it was a gated community.
But, no.
Cody says we’re gonna keep a low profile.
Cody says it’s safe here in the freaking sticks out in the middle of nowhere.
Cody says the animals need us, and we are gonna need them if those zombies ever get in.
Last night, he’d listened to everyone drone on and on around the fireplace as they discussed the weather, Christmas coming up, supplies on hand, training they were doing and things they’d learned. If they lived in town, they wouldn’t have worry about all this survivalist crap. There was plenty of food and they wouldn’t have to take care of all these stupid animals. When Harper had made another trip to the kitchen to pull the brownies out of the oven, he volunteered to help. She was the only one who was nice to him and he knew why. She had probably been thinking about getting away, thinking about him and how easy life would be in town. After all, she had baked them because he said chocolate was his favorite. If that wasn’t a blatant come on, he didn’t know what was. He was the oldest, the richest and had a plan to get them out of this zoo. Of course, she had the hots for him.
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