“You checked everywhere?”
He nodded again.
“What do you want to do?”
He shrugged.
“Can you please use words?”
“Since my mom’s not here, I guess there’s no reason for me to stay. Can I stay with you?”
Kyle smiled, but quickly wiped it off before Victor noticed. “You’re my partner. You’re always welcome to stay with me. ’Til the end.”
Obviously, something was wrong with Victor. It felt as if there was no more fight left in him, no more hope. At least through their journey, Victor had this moment to keep him going. The journey to get him home and find his mother was finally here. Sadly, it wasn’t the outcome he’d wanted. Victor had wanted to find his mother alive, to feel her warmth, to feel her close. This made Kyle think about the moment when he would arrive at Jasmine’s house. Would she be dead? Would she even be there? Would he take the final answer as well as Victor was? In the end, if Kyle found that Jasmine had passed on, he would at least have Victor by his side.
“So, where to now?” Victor asked.
“California,” Kyle answered. “It’s time I stop dicking around and go find Jasmine.”
“Thanks for bringing me here.”
“No problem, Sport,” Kyle said, not realizing that he had just called Victor the same nickname he had given to his dead son. “Let’s take those boxes your mom has in that room over there.” He pointed at the room again. “You never know, we might find some use for them.”
“Okay.” Kyle followed Victor as he trudged into the room.
“What was your mom doing with all this stuff? I highly doubt that she was able to store all this once shit started happening. I acted almost immediately, and I wasn’t able to stock up on this much food and water.”
They began to close up boxes.
“I don’t know. My mom was very resourceful. When that Swine Flu or whatever the hell it was happened a few years ago, she came home that night with everything she could take from the hospital she worked at.”
“Was it just you two living here?”
“For the most part. My dad left years ago so it’s been me and her ever since. Well … a year or so ago one of my aunts stayed with us.” Something seemed to click in Victor’s head as he spoke. “Which reminds me.” He stood and began making his way out the door.
Victor walked into the master bedroom. He reached for the closet door and was about to open it when Kyle stopped him.
“Wait …” he said and raised the weapon. “Open it slowly and stay out of the line of fire.”
Victor opened the closet door slowly. Kyle was expecting the worst to be trapped in that closet, but there was nothing. Only clothes on racks and a pile of shoe boxes.
Victor entered the walk-in closet and reached for something at the top of the rack. He pulled out a small fire-proof safe with a lock keypad in front. Holding it by the handle, Victor walked passed Kyle toward his mother’s unmade bed. The metal safe slammed face-up on the bed.
Victor recited the pass code as he entered it, “8-6-7-5-3-0-9.” There was a sustained beep as the lock was deactivated.
Kyle began to chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Victor asked.
“The combination.”
“Yeah? What about it?” He stared at Kyle with nothing but confusion over something so simple as a seven-digit number. Kyle could see that Victor really had no idea what those seven numbers meant, nor did he want to explain it to him.
“Nothing … What’s inside?”
“Just this,” Victor said pulling out a silver .357 magnum.
Kyle froze in place. He didn’t know that seeing the same type of weapon that had killed Eddie and Mary would make him feel so sick to his stomach.
“Have you seen a gun like this before? Can you show me how to use it?”
Kyle tried as best as possible to hold back vomit. He nodded and said, “Yeah. But put it away for now.”
Victor lifted his shirt and holstered the gun on his belt. He grabbed the box of ammo and put it in his pocket.
“Where did that thing come from? Whose was it?”
“My dad’s.”
“What happened to the gun you got from Susie?”
“I dunno.” Victor shrugged. “Lost it I guess.”
“Okay, well, I’ll help you load the magnum later. It’s pretty powerful,” he said as the sound of the .357 firing and the image of Eddie’s grinning face being pulverized flashed in his head. He cringed.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, just a bit tired. Let’s go load that stuff before it gets dark.”
They walked back to the supply room and continued closing boxes. Kyle began taking them to the top of the stairs and stacked them into piles.
“Is there going to be enough room?” Victor asked.
“Not for everything. We’ll just take what we can and leave the rest. Make sure you take some of those first-aid kits. We need to fix up your face.”
“It doesn’t really hurt anymore.”
“That may be true, but we’re still going to have to treat it. Don’t need your face getting infected or something.”
“Do you hear that?” Victor said as Kyle stood perfectly still.
“No.”
“Shhh. Listen.”
They did.
“It sounds like wheels turning. Like a shopping cart,” Victor said.
Victor rushed out of the room and ran down the stairs, taking two at a time. He pressed himself up against the wall next to the window and slowly peered outside. Kyle hurried down the stairs to join him.
“What’s out there?” he asked after he finally heard the noise.
“Oh my god,” Victor said turning to face Kyle, his face smiling from ear to ear. “It’s my mom.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Mom!” Victor yelled, standing in front of the window and waving his hands like a crazed kid trying to stop the ice-cream truck.
“Stay quiet,” Kyle said, poking his head around the window to get a better view of what Victor was seeing. “Holy hell.”
A tall woman in her mid-forties with short dark hair walked on the open road toward Kyle’s truck pushing a shopping cart. The wheels squeaked loudly, but it didn’t look like the woman cared. It was as if she wasn’t afraid the noise could draw attention from the Existing Dead. There were boxes in the cart, the same kind as in the storage room. She paused and stared at the truck, dumbfounded by its presence there.
Victor yelled again, this time loudly enough for the woman to hear.
Kyle carefully watched her to make sure her movements weren’t like those of the dead. Neither of them saw the woman’s face, but it didn’t matter. Victor knew instinctively that she was his mother.
The woman slowly turned toward her house. To Kyle’s disappointment and Victor’s delight, Morgan was alive. Her dark eyes squinted for a moment until she finally realized what she was seeing through the window. Her expression quickly went from confusion to joy and excitement. She began to run toward the house with her arms outstretched.
Victor quickly ran passed Kyle and bolted for the door.
Kyle tried swiping for him. “Wait!” But his arms met nothing but air. The boy flung the door open with excitement, which caused the doorknob to slam and punch a small indent on the back wall. The already-present dent indicated that this had not been the first time the doorknob had slammed into the wall.
Running up the driveway was Morgan, Victor’s mother. Her arms outstretched ready to give her boy, her lost boy, a much-anticipated hug. Tears of sorrow and joy fell from her face like raindrops falling from leaves. Her face was rosy red and her clothes looked clean and fresh. Her hair was perfectly brushed and it looked as though she had on a little bit of make-up. From afar, Morgan looked like a mess, but up close, she looked fine.