“He looks angry,” BT said.
“Angrier than normal?” I asked BT as I came closer.
He shrugged his shoulders in answer. We were both up by the fence. Ree was trying unsuccessfully to get his hands through the chain link.
“He really does have a funk about him, doesn’t he?” BT asked. “Do you want to try and kill him?”
“I’m having some issues here, BT.”
“I’d like to say ‘So what else is new’ but that almost seems cliché now. That’s no human,” BT said pointing to Ree. “And it’s debatable if that thing is even technically alive, but for the sake of argument, let’s say it is. It is still trying to kill us.”
“I know all this. I really do, I just feel like a cat playing with a mouse. It seems much more humane to put a bullet in its head than mess with it for our amusement.”
“I don’t see anything funny here, Talbot, do you?” BT asked hotly.
Step back and then get on your knees, I commanded my puppet. He complied immediately.
BT turned to watch and see what Ree would end up doing.
Smash your head against the ground! I yelled in my head, showing the motion I wanted him to take.
Ree was mannequin-still; he did not move.
“What’s going on?” BT asked, switching his view back between Ree and me. I was almost swaying as much as Ree had been earlier.
“He won’t do it,” I said, blowing out a large exhalation of air.
“Are you trying hard enough?”
“BT, I just about gave myself an aneurysm. I don’t think I could concentrate any harder.”
“I bet you got a D in that algebra class,” BT said, placing a bullet in Re-Pete’s head as he struggled to get up, his damaged knee finally locking the joint in place. Ree fell over with a solid thud.
“I failed it.”
BT snorted. “How far you think you were, fifty, sixty feet?”
“Not much more than that.”
“Could you do that with multiple zombies?”
I could hear Gary yelling if everything was alright in the distance.
“We’re fine!” BT yelled, moving away from the spreading pool of blood by his feet.
“How far are we away from our locker?” I asked BT.
“A ways,” he answered.
“How did you find me?” I asked him suspiciously. “And better yet, why?”
“Mike,” BT started. “You’ve gone through a lot in the last few days.”
“Keeping tabs on me, man?” I asked, more than a little hurt.
BT didn’t dance around the bush. “Yeah, actually I am. Do you blame me?”
I was a second or two away from flashing into anger and then it dissipated like fog in a hot summer sun. “You know, fundamentally, I’m still the exact same person I was. You know that, right?” I asked him, seemingly for his approval.
“I hope so, Mike. Because I can’t imagine doing this shit with anyone but that crazy bastard.”
“What’s going on?” Gary asked, somewhat out of breath. He took in the whole scene quickly. One dead zombie, me with a slightly wilted look and BT very standoffish. “Everything cool?”
“I hope so, I really do,” BT said, walking back towards the locker.
“Mike?” Gary asked.
“BT isn’t all that enamored with my upgrades,” I said, walking over to the fence to see if I could figure out if Re-Pete had a thicker skull.
“Anything I should be concerned about?” Gary asked, coming up to my side.
“Not yet, brother.”
“How much time we got until Eliza comes?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Do you think we’ll need more weapons?”
“I’ve got a little surprise of my own set up. We should have plenty of guns for what I want to do.
“What about the zombie?”
“He’s dead now,” I said, walking back towards the shed. I could not see anything more in the dark.
Paul met me about halfway back. “Hey, buddy, do you need any help?” he asked still fumbling with his pants.
“It looks like you’re the one that needs a hand. Now, I’m not offering, I’m just saying.”
“Go figure, I find a camp potty, toilet paper, a small flashlight and some damn comic books. The night couldn’t be any quieter and I find the perfect spot to take care of some personal business.”
“Sorry, man, but you should know better by now,” I said. I felt for Paul I truly did. Women don’t really get it, but a man’s time on the throne is one of relaxation, a time when he can let go, both literally and figuratively. Not bathroom humor, just fact.
“I’m going to see if the office is open. Maybe there’s actually a door to the bathroom there.”
“Be careful, my friend.”
He waved a hand at me, I hoped it wasn’t the one he had been using for other needs earlier.
Mrs. Deneaux was sitting outside in a plastic lawn chair, smoking a cigarette, I couldn’t tell if she was asleep or not. The fluid motions she made when extracting the smoke from her lips and flicking the ash was a much-practiced maneuver. It was her own small dance of death.
Mrs. Deneaux magically produced a half-empty pack and one cigarette leapt out at me. I took it much like a drowning man would take a glass of water, or an apple from a serpent. You decide.
Gary had grabbed my shoulder and gave me a brotherly squeeze as he went back into the storage unit. Brian walked by, stopping only long enough to tell me he would take over the patrol. I thanked him as Deneaux lit my smoke.
“BT doesn’t trust you,” she said after a few peaceful moments. She wasn’t looking at me, but rather up at the sky and the blazing stars.
“And you?” I asked, taking a heavy intake of smoke, also marveling at the sight above us.
“All I know is that if you turn me into a vampire and I’m stuck in this old wrinkled body forever, I will make sure to never leave your side. I’m no longer a Miss Stewart.”
I started laughing. “I’ll keep that in mind; and who is Miss Stewart?”
“It’s of no concern now. So how are things, Michael?” she said. At some point, she had stopped looking at the stars and her eyes sparked brightly as they focused intently on me.
“That’s quite a gaze you’ve got going on there,” I said, trying to deflect some of that attention.
“It is not every day that someone has their soul stripped from their body. I have also given mine up, but I fear I will have to atone for it a lot sooner than you, I expect.”
My mouth opened to ask her what she had done, but she cut me off at the pass.
“It is not something I wish to discuss. Perhaps I will write it down in a journal. I see you scribbling in that thing all the time. I would love to know what you think of me.”
“No you wouldn’t,” I said.
Now it was her turn to laugh. “No, perhaps I wouldn’t. Do you lead us to salvation, Michael?” she asked in all seriousness. “Is that even possible?”
“To be honest, Mrs. Deneaux…”
“Vivian.”
“Vivian,” I said. Her name felt like I was swirling broken glass around in my mouth as I tried to say it. “I’m just trying to make it through tomorrow.”
Her gaze shifted back to the heavens. We actually enjoyed an easy silence for a few moments before she stood up. “I’m going to get a few more hours of sleep. I believe that we will make it through tomorrow,” she said, heading back into the shed.
And then what? I wanted to say, but I wished her a good night and I meant it. I stayed there, looking at the stars swirling overhead until the morning sun began to bathe my face in its presence.
“You out here all night?” BT asked, stretching his arms wide.
“I guess so. I think I might have discovered a new planet.”
“Okay, so it’s early and now I’m not truly sure if this is sarcasm or are you telling the truth?”