Justin came up next; he was never a squeamish one. He wasn’t fond of public displays of affection, but just this one time he obviously figured he’d break his own rules as he hugged me tight. “It sucks being the man of the family,” he smiled. “I’m glad you’re here so you can take it back.”
“Good to see you, too.” I smiled.
Travis was on the verge of tears. He kept wiping his sleeve across his eyes in an attempt to keep up with the tears that were free flowing. As an eighteen-year-old boy, appearance is everything. “I knew you couldn’t be dead,” he said sniffing loudly, his head down. I watched as tears splashed down into the floor.
“Men cry, Travis,” I told him.
He looked up. “Good thing,” he said through the sobs as he wrapped one arm around me, the other looked stiff and I would learn later he had been winged by a bullet.
“What did I miss?” I asked.
Mad Jack and Ron began to tell me of their defenses and I gently reminded them about how easily I had got in.
“We didn’t take into account humans,” Mad Jack said with a frown.
“And I’m sure that’s what Eliza’s thoughts were, too. I took care of her first strike team, but I’ve got to believe she’s going to send another one. I also have these,” I said, holding up four zombie- repellant chains. I explained what they were to those who did not know and we would discuss a way to put them to better use.
Cindy kept looking at me and then the door expectantly. I think she thought that if I had come back from the dead, than quite possibly so had her Brian. I grabbed her hand and slightly shook my head. She knew, she fundamentally knew he wasn’t ever coming back, but the human mind has a way of putting hope above reason. She brought my hand up to her face as she cried. It was long moments before her sobs gave way to a hitching cry, then finally stony silence punctuated by some sniffling. She released my hand and went into another room; I would imagine to be alone with her memories of happier times.
“Where’s Erin?” I asked. Her above all others I owed an explanation.
“We don’t know,” Tracy told me. “She walked out and we haven’t seen her since.”
“She’s out there?” I asked standing up.
“Mike, she wants to be,” BT said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “She died when Paul did, she just didn’t know it yet.”
Now it was my time to bury my face in my hands. I dragged my hands down my face, then realized just how effen gross I was. “I’m going to get cleaned up. Post a guard, then we’ll talk.”
“It’s good to have you back, brother,” Ron said.
“It’s good to be back,” I told them all and I meant it. I left it up in the air if I meant physically back in the house or back from the dead. The clothes I stripped off and neatly deposited in the nearest trash receptacle. The drain was working overtime with the amount of dirt and human debris I was sending its way. I stared straight ahead at the stream of water, choosing, wisely I might add, to not look at what was swirling around my feet.
When I was sufficiently confident that I had stripped at least the top three layers of my skin off, I stopped the water and got out. It was invigorating to be alive, well alive and clean, and home. I stepped out of the bathroom and into the bedroom Ron had given Tracy and I for our stay.
I hastily covered up when I heard a slight cough. “Shit, woman, you scared me. Thought it might be one of the nieces or something.”
“You look good, Mike, a little skinny…but good,” Tracy said.
“I do, don’t I,” I said placing my hands on my abs. “I haven’t seen those since the Marine Corps days.”
“You should come over here.”
“Let me just grab some clothes,” I told her looking through the stack of stuff she had out for me.
“Those can wait,” she said.
My head shot up (and then so did my other one). “Gotcha,” I said, hastily moving over to the bed where she was already under the covers and I prayed naked. (And there was a prayer the big man had heard! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! I would have raised my hands up in the air and shook them around like jazz hands if it were appropriate.)
“You going to keep that hat on?” she asked.
“You’ll get used to it.”
“It isn’t just some random Mike phobia then, like the fear of using your cereal spoon more than once?”
“I thought we weren’t going to talk about that anymore? And hey, who the hell knows where my mouth has been?”
“I know where I’d like it to be.”
Conversation came to a lull at that point, and somehow it was right. We made love in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, surrounded on all sides by an enemy hell bent on our destruction and for at least a little bit of time we laid all of that on the bedroom floor. When we came to our blissful conclusion, Tracy spoke.
“Life without you was unimaginable,” she said as her hand came up to the side of my face.
“I’ll bet it was.” I laughed as I kissed her palm. “Who wouldn’t miss me?”
“Mike, no, I’m serious…and for once I wish you would be, too.”
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t too excellent on my end either. I lost a friend I’ve had for thirty years, I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that, and now his wife is missing. And we’re still in one hell of a fuck-fest. Just because I’m back doesn’t make that fact go away.”
“Somehow it does,” she said, laying her head on my shoulder.”
“We don’t have to cuddle now do we?” I asked. “I’d like get to get to work or something.”
She smacked me upside the head. “I love you, Michael Talbot.”
“I love you too, woman.” I kissed her long and hard, and we could have rapidly found ourselves back in our earlier predicament (not that I was complaining), but it would have to wait.
Then I probably soured the mood anyway as I pulled away I asked the very last question anyone should ask while in bed with the one they love. “Where’s Deneaux?”
“She was in the kitchen right before you got there. I really wasn’t paying her all that much attention when you came in, why?”
“She’s got some unanswered questions I like some further explanation for.”
“About?”
“I’m pretty sure she has some culpability in Brian’s death and possibly in Paul’s,” I told her as I got up and grabbed some clothes.
“Please tell me you’re kidding?” Tracy asked, as she pulled off the covers and stood.
“Wow.”
“What?” She was looking around.
“You look more beautiful than the day we met.”
Tracy was slightly self-conscious, but even she had to admit that the apocalypse had done wonders for her body. “Thank you, Mike, but right now I just want to beat some answers out of that battle axe.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” I quickly dressed, as did Tracy.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Mrs. Deneaux
“Fuck me.” Mrs. Deneaux said under her breath as Mike walked in the back door. She uncharacteristically panicked as the behemoth BT picked up Mike and twirled him around. She stayed in the shadows of the living room for a while listening, then quickly retired to her room so that she could make sure that her stories were all consistent.
She knew Mike might be saying all his greetings now, but that he would be trying to sniff around and under her many lies. He somehow knew she was lying, and it would only be a matter of time until he tripped her up.
And then what? she thought. “He’ll probably kick me out.”
She had her ear to the door and could hear the merriment down the hallway. She waited until it died down and mostly became celebration among those that were already at the house.
“...so good to see him.”
“...thought he was dead.”
Yadda yadda, blah blah, she thought. This was her worst case scenario. She exited her room just as she saw Tracy closing the door to her bedroom. She heard the soft his
s of the shower that Mike must be taking. She moved quickly down the hallway to see if he had possibly said anything to anyone else. Then her first chance at an alternate plan revealed itself as she looked down on the four silver chains that each had a small ornate vial filled with an amber colored fluid sitting on the kitchen table.
“Is this the zombie repellant?” she asked as she quickly snatched one off the table. “It just might be my ticket out of here.” She thought about taking all of them, and just might have if Angel hadn’t taken that most inopportune of times to walk in.
“You look guilty of something,” Angel said pointing her finger at Mrs. Deneaux.
“It’s that obvious is it?” Mrs. Deneaux asked. She wasn’t playing with the girl, if her guilt was so apparent to the little rapscallion, then she would never be able to fool Mike who already had her tried and convicted in his mind.
“Ryan! The mean lady is up to no good!” Angel screamed into the other room.
“Well aren’t you just a little darling,” Mrs. Deneaux said through clenched teeth. “I would just love to squeeze the little life out of you.”
“Ryan!” Angel screamed again, looking into the other room for her brother.
“I’m leaving and I’m going to make sure that you get what’s coming to you,” Mrs. Deneaux said as she placed her stolen chain and vial into her pocket.
Angel waited and watched as ‘the Mean Lady’ left the room. Then, when she was completely sure she was gone and not coming back, she stuck her tongue out at her.
Mrs. Deneaux went back to her room and grabbed her revolver and her bullets and quickly went down into the basement. It was cool, dark, and quiet down there. She paused long and hard, rationalizing out everything she was about to do. Mike still had no concrete evidence against her and never would. As for the vial, just because Mike had made it through that didn’t mean it actually worked. It was mere minutes after she heard the whoosh of the shower turn off before she got moving. The man had changed significantly. He might not need proof to throw her outside, and he would make sure that she didn’t have a vial. No, she would take her chances outside. That way at least she would have one, she thought.
She undid the heavy bar lock on the reinforced door and stole out into the night. She stayed hidden under the deck until she got to the back of the house. She waited patiently, listening to see if anyone was over her. When she was confident no one was watching from the deck, she walked purposefully across the yard. She was thankful that Mad Jack had been thoughtful enough to create a small draw bridge to get across the spike filled trench. She grabbed the handle and spun it counter-clockwise, the two foot wide beam eight feet long began to descend rapidly; within twenty seconds it spanned the death canal.
She keyed in a code to the electric fence, shutting off current to the gate which she hesitated to open. Zombies were now within an arm’s length of her. She almost decided to turn around and try her luck with Michael. She hadn’t done anything tonight that she could not recover from. Her foot turned in the loose soil as she looked back at the house. The girl Angel was on the deck watching her.
“Fucking brat,” Mrs. Deneaux said as she opened the gate. Her eyes were closed as she waited expectantly for the bite of death. She opened her eyes as the first of the zombies that was doing its best to avoid her clipped her shoulder as it moved on past.
“Zombies!” Angel shouted.
Gunfire erupted, Mrs. Deneaux did not know from which side, and she didn’t really care as she forced herself through the gate while zombies were pouring into the yard. Most were being forced into the pit, but a lucky few had found their way across the beam and into the Promised Land. Mrs. Deneaux did not look back as she cut a path through the horde.
She made it all the way through to almost be shot.
“Stop!” a nervous, gun-wielding man told her.
She put her hands up halfway. “You caught me,” she said sardonically.
“Bernie, I’ve got a live one here!” he yelled to his left. “Barely,” he added, looking back at her.
She flipped him the bird. Her pistol still safely tucked in her holster, she thought long and hard about pulling it out and killing the nervous little man, but there were more men in the woods and if she wanted to save her hide she would play the game by their rules for the time being.
“Bring her to the boss, dumbass,” Bernie said as if he too could not stand the man.
“Right, let’s go,” Beans said to her as he motioned to his right with the rifle. “And keep your hands where I can see them.”
“Why…are you afraid I’ll do this?” she asked as she drew her pistol out and aimed it squarely at his chest.
Beans raised his hands up in the air, rifle included.
“Tell you what…you don’t point your weapon at me, and I won’t point mine at you. Sound fair?” she asked.
“Fair, very fair,” Beans answered apprehensively.
“Now please kindly show me the way to your boss,” Mrs. Deneaux said as she put her weapon away, a slight smile across her lips.
Mrs. Deneaux was led up to a small group. She noticed the idiot Tommy who was standing next to a big man she figured was ‘the boss’. She began to think of a story that would position her in the best light and get her out of here. As she got closer, she noticed the slight woman that had been blocked from view. Eliza, she thought as she took in a sharp breath doing her best to remain calm.
Eliza looked past the big man to see Mrs. Deneaux’s approach. Kong turned also when he saw Eliza looking. His eyebrows furrowed as he saw Beans leading the old woman towards him.
“Whoa…far enough,” Kong said, putting one hand up and the other going for his hip.
“I caught her coming out of the house,” Beans said excitedly.
“And you didn’t think to take her sidearm? You dumbass,” Kong told his subordinate.
“I...I she pulled it on me...we had an understanding,” Beans stammered.
“Beans, you’re an idiot. Ma’am, I’m going to need you to gently take that gun and put it on the ground.”
“The name is Vivian,” she said as she handed the gun to Beans. “Could you be a dear and place that on the ground for me? Bad hips,” she told the group.
Eliza moved Kong over with her hand and stared intently at Mrs. Deneaux. “Is there a reason I should not immediately kill you?” she finally said.
“I want Mike dead as much as you,” Mrs. Deneaux said as she struggled to find her reserves of courage.
“Is that so?” Eliza questioned.
“I killed two of his men that attacked you on the highway,” Mrs. Deneaux said, now wishing that she had stayed with Michael. Nothing he could have done to her would have been equivalent to looking upon the embodiment of evil. She failed to mention that she was one of the bigger reasons for the success of the attack; that was better left unsaid. “I killed his childhood friend.”
“Paul Ginson?” Tomas asked.
“Yes,” Deneaux answered.
“You know of him?” Eliza asked her brother.
“Yes, they were very close, grew up together. I believe they considered themselves brothers,” Tomas stated.
“Why?” Eliza asked. “Why would you kill him? Certainly not in preparation for meeting me.”
“He had suspicions about the other man that I killed.”
“Ah, self-preservation, I understand that all too well. None of this however has led me to any other conclusion except to kill you. We are not allies, you did not kill those men as a show of solidarity.”
“I have allowed your zombies in past the fence,” Mrs. Deneaux said, quickly running out of ways to save her skin.
“Is that true?” Kong asked Beans.
“I don’t know,” he answered.
“Find out, ass hat.”
“How did you come across one of my vials?” Eliza asked.
“I stole one of the ones Mike brought in with him,” Mrs. Deneaux said as she licked her arid lips.
?
??How is Michael?” Eliza asked with a faraway look as if she was asking about a lover from long ago that she still harbored feelings for.
“He’s different.”
“How?” Eliza asked, snapping quickly back from her abstraction.
Mrs. Deneaux stood there for a few moments thinking about how to answer the question to her best benefit and could not think of anything more convincing than the truth. She was convinced Eliza would smell out any falsehoods like a hound dog on the trail of an escaped convict. “If I didn’t believe Michael would exact revenge on me, I would have stayed in that house. He is...determined, and whereas he was sometimes non-committal or unwilling to do whatever it took, I think that has changed. I do not think that you can win here.”
Eliza’s full cruelty came to the fore. “You believe I can not destroy that pathetic man?” she roared.
Mrs. Deneaux put her head down waiting for Eliza to slash her open from neck to navel. “I am not always right,” Mrs. Deneaux said weakly.
Beans came running back. He nearly handed Deneaux back her weapon. “The old bat was telling the truth, zombies are all over the yard.”
“You will live long enough…if only to watch him die!” she yelled. “Kong, get her out of here.”
“Beans, you screw this up and I’ll personally kill you. Take the lady back to your truck and guard her,” Kong told him.
Mrs. Deneaux once again found herself thrust onto Michael’s side. She had to hope that he bested Eliza, or her death would immediately follow his. Beans opened up his passenger door and let her in. he walked around the front of the truck and got on his side.
“What are you doing here?” Mrs. Deneaux asked him as he closed the door. He looked infinitely happy that he was no longer in harm’s way, although he quite possibly didn’t realize he had allowed a pit viper in his cab.
“Just trying to stay alive,” he answered ashamedly. “Why are you here?”
“Same reason.” The wheels of survival began to spin in her head.