Dammit.
“What the hell is that?!” BT yelled in exclamation.
“It’s just a little hydrogen peroxide,” Mary answered. “The same stuff I’ve been using this whole time.”
“No, in me! Something’s in me,” he said, standing in alarm.
“Josh, get out of here!” Mary yelled. “He’s turning into a zombie!”
“I am?” BT asked with alarm.
“Hold on!” I yelled, coming in late to the party. I had been so intent on watching what Tomas was doing, I was unaware of my physical surroundings. Gary was moments away from putting a bullet in BT.
“Mike! What’s going on?” BT asked, looking like he was getting ready to jump out of his own skin.
“I asked for some help,” I told him.
“What kind of help and who specifically?” he asked with a very large note of concern.
“I asked Tomas for some help.”
“Tomas, as in Eliza’s brother, Tomas?” Mary asked Gary.
Gary shrugged his shoulders. “I told her everything. You guys were gone for a long time.”
“Yes, that Tomas,” I said, answering her question.
“Mike, don’t you think you should have maybe asked me before you let the enemy in?”
“Tomas is here?” Josh asked, running to the front window. “I don’t see anyone.”
“Did you ever stop to think that he could really do some damage?” BT asked. He was more than a little pissed off.
“I took a risk. It was a calculated risk,” I told him.
“With my life!” he yelled, bringing his fist down on the table. Mary jumped as if she were startled, but it could have been that the shock wave from the table had caused her to raise up off the floor.
“There were not many options, my friend,” I told him.
“Don’t pull that ‘my friend’ shit with me!” he roared.
I hadn’t seen him this mad in a long time, if ever.
“He’s inside me!” he said thumping his fist against his chest.
“It’s done,” Tomas intoned. “Do not contact me again.”
We’ll see, I answered him, but he was already gone.
“You don’t get it, BT, I had to ask for his help. I couldn’t hold them off indefinitely. While I’m thinking about it or while I’m conscious, it’s easy enough to keep telling the parasites to stay put. But I have no idea what happens if I sleep. And I love you, my friend, but I don’t always want to be within shouting distance, do you?” I asked throwing it back at him.
“Well, not really,” he answered, a small measure of anger dropping off.
“I guess I’d never have to worry about running out of toilet paper,” I told him.
“What are you talking about?” Gary asked.
“Because BT will always be around and if Mike runs out, BT will be able to hear him. Have you not been listening to the conversation?” Josh asked.
“So am I supposed to shoot him, Mike?” Gary asked me.
“I think he’s fine now.”
“How would you know that?” BT asked me suspiciously.
“Tomas is gone,” I told him.
“So how would you know if I’m good or not?” BT asked once again, threatening me with his finger.
I didn’t answer. I was hoping against all odds he would just drop it.
“Are you saying you can get in me too?!” His temper was beginning to flare again. “So what? I’m like a 7-Eleven? Always open?” BT was pacing around Mary’s small kitchen. He was running his hand across his head. “I don’t like this shit, Mike. Sorry, kid,” BT said to Josh. “I think I’d rather have Eliza rooting around in there. At least, I’d know what she was up to. You scare the shit out of me, man.”
“So you can like mind control him?” Josh asked, making his arms move like a robot.
“Really?” Gary asked, “Because there’s a few things I’d really love to see him do.”
“Nobody is making me do anything I don’t want to do, right?” BT asked, threatening to come over and smash my skull if I didn’t give him an immediate answer that completely meshed with his.
“I can’t control him,” I told Josh.
“Damn right, I’m uncontrollable,” BT said, crossing his arms.
“Okay, rebel, calm down, so I can finish cleaning you up,” Mary said. “We’re out of immediate danger, yes?” Mary asked, looking over towards me.
I nodded my answer, hoping that BT hadn’t picked it up. No such luck.
“What am I thinking now?” BT asked me.
“You’re thinking about how you’d like to pop my head off my bony body,” I told him.
He bounced up like a spring-loaded toy. “He can read my damn thoughts!” he yelled.
“Relax,” Mary laughed. “Even I could have read your thoughts about that.”
BT seemed to settle down as he finally sat. “How would you feel if you had a crazy Talbot running around in your head?” he asked her.
“Just so we’re clear,” Gary said, “he’s talking about Mike and not me.”
BT looked defeated or maybe just tired. I couldn’t really blame him either way. I couldn’t even begin to think about what he’d been through the last few hours.
“Mary, when he’s all cleaned up, could you find him a place to get some rest? If you don’t mind, I’d like for us to spend another night.”
She nodded, gratefully. I think she really liked having some company, someone who could take the pressure off her constant vigilance.
“What about the others?” Gary asked.
“They’re on their own for the moment.”
Chapter Fifteen – Mrs. Deneaux
Night was rapidly approaching. Mrs. Deneaux had removed Brian’s jacket, justifying her actions by saying that he was burning up and that she was chilled.
“He would have offered it to me himself, if he were awake,” she wrongfully assumed as she peeled the coat from his fever-racked body. The lines from his gut wound had grown a deeper crimson, almost violet red, and were now mere inches away from his heart.
“I knew he wouldn’t make it,” Mrs. Deneaux laughed as she realized she had just summed up the fate of both of the travelers she was with. Her plan was to wait out the night on the off chance that the twit, Paul, had found some medicine and had not become a casualty himself. When he didn’t show by morning, which she just knew would be the case, she would walk out and either find Michael or her own mode of transportation.
Mrs. Deneaux had no illusions. She had only survived this long because of the charity of others or at the very least, the indifference of them. She knew Brian was a lost cause, as was Paul, even if he showed up in the nick of time with medicine. Brian was in no shape to protect anyone, and to her, it seemed that Paul had survived along similar lines as her own, by the grace of others.
The night almost passed by uneventfully. She heard something going on maybe two or three streets over, but who and what it was were not discernible. She felt as if she had slept, but she couldn’t remember. Mostly she had stared at Brian and smoked cigarettes. With the moon still high in the sky, she found herself in the same spot and in the same position she had been when she had initially fallen asleep.
She had a small mountain of butts by her side, her exhaled smoke nearly obscuring her vision as she scanned the woods around her.
“Zombie,” she said, standing up and crushing her latest butt into the ground. She exhaled the blue-gray smoke. The zombie hadn’t quite locked onto their position.
“Must have smelled the smoke. My husband always said these would be the death of me. I can’t imagine he thought in this fashion though.” Mrs. Deneaux looked quickly down at Brian. He was on his own. She would not be able to move him and where to, anyway?