“So whoever made Fred is who I should be gunning for now, right? I get you Jimbo. But I don’t care, you know why? No? You Jimbo, I could not get into your mind, it is all smoke and mirrors in there, nothing to grab onto anymore. Where did you pick that trick up in the last twenty four hours? It don’t matter really, if you did it, I can learn it too and when I do, no one will have me. No one.”
Jimbo started laughing again and when Nancy raised a questioning eyebrow he just pointed at her girls. “Them Nancy, how long until they can keep you out? Then what do you do?”
Nancy looked thoughtful for a full minute, then said, “Well thank you Jimbo, you have opened my eyes to the reality of the situation.”
Turning to the girls she said, “I see it now, what he is saying, it is only a matter of time, isn’t it? So. We have to come up with a new deal, a better deal than me bossing all of you around, so how do I make it work, what do you want of me?”
Jimbo felt hope, almost he could envision himself getting out of this situation no more dead than he already was.
“Well c’mon, as Jimbo said you will either tell me now or stab me in the back like this mother fucker later. What can we do to have a more equitable relationship? You, Veronica, you have been with me the longest you tell me what you think.”
“Ah, Nancy, we want control, not you in our heads making us do everything. We would rather be officers than grunts and we, I, want to be asked to do things, not made to do things I detest.”
“The toddlers. Yeah I know that was a tough call, but what? You would have left them there to die? Or found some humans to take them in? If it was not us who did it, not you, then who?” asked Nancy.
“I don’t know, but not me. Not me and never again. You don’t seem to understand, things have changed we are not human anymore, I know that, but just because you have that power over us, however little it is, does not mean you should be boss. What are your plans? I hear you mumble about getting Fred and Jimbo and Max and what? What Nancy? Things have changed, what are we going to do?”
“Well for now I am not giving you control, your attitude needs to improve a bit. Can’t you see I am trying to build an empire here? You three are the start, and will be the generals in the new world order, I want to find the people who are a threat to me, to us, and eliminate them first, then go after fuckers like Dave and take them down while building us up. I can’t have people not following orders, the kids were a lesson to you, that is all. Don’t fuck up and it won’t happen again, right? You learned your lesson and it won’t happen again.”
“No Nancy, try it, just try it now, I could walk away right now, I can SEE your strength you are recovering, but I could have taken you the minute Fred’s blood touched my tongue. The very minute. So what are you going to change right now to make me happy?”
Nancy again paused and looked the girls over. This was not going as planned, but they were not walking and they were not ripping her limb from limb, so maybe a compromise could be worked out.
“Well fuck me, this is what I get for bringing you into the new world, huh? Fuck your own mother over will you? Okay. Okay, I get it, you don’t like being bossed around, so what? We rule by committee? We go our separate ways? We don’t eat babies? What do you want?”
Veronica looked at Julie and Trish, “You two agree to let me do the rest of the talking? Or do you feel differently?” The other girls stammered that they agreed with Veronica, who turned to Nancy then continued, “Okay what I want is for you to stop being such a dumb ass. Could you do that? You’re gonna crucify Jimbo here when he obviously has the smarts to get away from you, and the cleverness to find the guy you were looking for since you smarted up, and he figured out how to block a dominate zombie from jerking you around. And you are going to kill him? Right? Right? Fuck that, you are one dumb ass manager, even I, working in a goddamn coffee shop can see talent when it walks up and spits in my face. We don’t need him.” Here she cast a glance at Jimbo. “As you said whatever he learned he figured out in the last day, so could we, but when he is gone where do we get our next bit of inspiration from? If you kill the talent you will surround yourself with idiots who are worthless when push comes to shove. I say we make him an offer, put him on probation, lop off an arm and say ‘naughty-naughty Jimbo don’t do that again’ and make damn sure he is grateful for it. He can show that gratitude by teaching us what he knows, oh sure I expect him to hold out on us, but if we can all teach each other eighty percent of what we learn, we will all grow more powerful. I say it is time for recruiting, Jimbo here, he gets to be the spy master maybe or the chief wizard of information or whatever the fuck you want to call him. I get to control the Army, Trish and Julie, what do you want?”
Trish answered, “Like a government, I want to be the judicial branch. Nancy you get to be president. Julie?”
“I don’t know, this is happening too fast. Do I have to be anything? Can’t I just choose later?”
“Now is not a good time to sit on the sidelines Julie.” responded Veronica, “You better chose a force and grab your area of power now, before it is too late.”
Still Julie hmmed and hawed around, she could not make a decision, finally Veronica said, “Okay fine, I will take you as an administrator in the ‘army’, you want to be in charge of recruitment? Training? We’ll figure it out later, now we have to see if Nancy is going to remain the ‘president’ and what to do with our Benedict Arnold here.”
“Remain the president? Oh of course I am! I mean who better to lead our nation back to greatness? I can do this V, you know I can and you are right, even dumbfuck over there is right, it was just a matter of time. I mean I couldn’t expect to keep a lid on you girls forever. I still think we should off Jimbo though, he is too much of a risk and has already proven he can be treacherous.” said Nancy, not quite whining, but something in her voice led Jimbo to believe she was aiming for a concession, like if she didn’t get to kill him now, maybe she could do so later, or maybe it was something else.
“No Nancy you still don’t get it. We are going to need treachery and the only reason he did what he did was because you were such a bitch. Do you think we like running around hungry with half our brains working? Hell no! You drove him to it and if you don’t see that you really are not good for us. My only reason for even considering staying around is that you are ruthless enough to get the job done. You also seem to have a goaclass="underline" Eliminate your enemies and gain power. For what? I don’t know, but it is better than running into the Dave’s of the world and getting fucked over when they are more powerful than we are. I want you to think longer term than that. I will be a commander of your, our, military forces I will hold considerable power to balance you. We need Jimbo, he is not optional. But do we need you?”
“Fuck you drive a hard bargain, you love this don’t you, having me over a barrel? You would not be talking to me like this if I hadn’t wasted all my efforts protecting you from Fred and Jimbo. No! Don’t even start it, I know you need me to change and if we can work together I will. You get your Jimbo.” She spat in his direction. “But I get to lead us and until someone comes up with another plan we still follow my lead.”
“Fine” said Veronica, “I can live with that, Jimbo teaches me first, then Trish, then Julie, you last, I don’t want you backing out after you get your strength back.”
Nancy looked at her with disgust, then chuckled, “Yeah, yeah, okay. You got me covered don’t you? You do know I always intended you to be my right hand woman don’t you? And I meant what I said, they would have been my generals anyway, I suppose this is worth the price of not having to wait until the next time one of you pull a ‘Jimbo’ on me.”