“I’m sort of feeling that way,” Jason said. “But I saw my wife’s grave, my daughter’s grave.”
“You didn’t see them, though. I feel guilty for not being torn apart, for not feeling grief as badly as I should. I lost my child. But I just don’t believe it.”
“Will we ever?”
“It will never be real. I’ll miss them terribly. I do miss them now. I just don’t know if I’ll ever miss them as if they died. It’s too surreal. Enough serious talk, go pick your poison for our game.”
Jason grumbled and stood. “What did you get?”
Nora quickly covered her vending machine items. “Not saying. I’m playing high stakes here.”
“I have news for you that vending machine food is at least twenty-five years old. It’s all high stakes.” He stood and walked to the machine. “Back to what we were saying.”
“No, let’s not.”
“One more thing. Okay? Just know… how you feel, is justifiable. Whether it will change, we don’t know. It may. It may not. Only time will tell. Like I mentioned when I did my sermon for you.”
Nora laughed.
“What? What’s so funny?” Jason returned to the table hiding his items from Nora’s sight.
“Well, don’t take this the wrong way. Maybe it was better when you were standing before a huge congregation or something.”
“Better?”
“Yeah, more moving.”
“I’ll have you know, I was a great orator for God.”
“I’m sure. Plus, the way you look probably captured the female audience.”
“Oh, yeah?” Jason smiled. “All marketing, make up, hair designers and so forth. I was not all that before the network found me.”
“Well, I’m looking at you now at your worse and you’re still pretty cute.” She winked. “You can sing, too. Oh my God, can you sing well.”
“Thanks.”
“The song got a message out more than the words.”
“Okay. Okay. I get it. You were bored. But you wanted to see what I did. I preached and sang the word of God. And while we’re critiquing…”
Nora groaned. “You didn’t laugh.”
“Not saying you weren’t funny before all this, it’s just that your routine isn’t funny now. I mean I can see how the Starbucks rant would have been funny when there was a Starbucks.”
“That’s true. Part of being a good comedian is making people laugh at things they can relate to. It’s hard to relate to an overcrowded Starbucks when we’re the last people around. Although whenever I did a Starbucks bit, I killed it. People laughed.”
“I bet.”
“So I’ll just work on new material. I have a captured audience.”
“I look forward to it.” Jason dealt the cards. “Ready?”
“Ready.” Without showing reaction, Nora turned over her cards. She looked at them and laid one card down. “I’ll take one.”
“One? Wow. Okay. I’ll take three.” Jason dealt out the replacement cards. “Go on.”
“I’ll bet… one Cheez It.” She put the small cheese cracker in the middle of the table.
“For a person who got only one card, you aren’t confident. I’ll see your Cheez It with a Pretzel and raise you one Raisinette.”
“You realize if you lose you have to put one of those in your mouth.”
Jason touched the chocolate covered raisin. “It’s still soft.”
“Ok, I’ll add a peanut butter cracker.” She pushed it forward.
“Call it. What do you have?”
“Pair of kings.”
“Pair of kings? If you had a pair of kings why did you only take one card?”
“To psych you out.”
“Didn’t work. Three Jacks.”
Nora groaned as Jason gloated and swept the goodies his way. He stared at them. “Because you put it down there. I choose the Cheez It.” He handed the tiny orange cracker to her.
“Amazing it looks fresh.”
“No, it’s discolored. Eat it.”
Nora cringed. Under the rules of the game, she had to put it in her mouth, chew it or try to chew it once and then after an obvious taste of it, spit it out. No investigating was required. “Here. Goes. I used to love these.”
Jason watched.
Nora placed the cracker in her mouth, fought to get one bite, cringed, gagged a little then spit it out in the cup. “Taste like cardboard.”
Jason laughed and handed her the deck. “Your deal.”
Nora proceeded to shuffle the cards. “So… I got a joke. First in the new line up. Let me know what you think.”
“Go on. I’m excited.”
“What did the nuclear war survivor say to her boyfriend?”
“Nuclear war survivor?”
“Yeah, relatable material. We’re in a like dystopian world, so end of the world jokes.”
“Oh my God. Okay, I’m game. What did she say to her boyfriend?”
Nora dealt out the cards. “You’re the bomb.”
“That’s terrible.”
“No it’s not. You smiled.”
“No, I didn’t.’ Jason shook his head. “And I’m good.”
“No cards?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll take four.”
“Four huh?” Jason raised an eyebrow.
Nora gave herself four cards. “Go on.”
“Five raisinettes.”
“Wow. Starting high. I’ll take them with five cheese crackers and raise you one Twinkie.”
“I fold.”
“You fold? You can’t fold. If you fold I win the hand and you have to eat something.”
“I fold.”
“Fine. I had nothing.” She tossed her cards down and lifted the raisin. “And because I’m nice.” She handed it to him. “This is for you. Chomp.”
“After that bad joke, I suppose this will be less painful.” He placed it in his mouth, paused and his eyes widened. “Holy Cow. Unreal. These are really good.”
“Seriously?” Nora asked.
“I don’t know how. Are there more boxes in the machine?” He took two more.
“For real?”
Jason nodded.
Nora excitedly took one and put it in her mouth. The second she did, her eyes watered and she immediately shot it from her mouth into the cup, grunting.
Jason laughed and spit out his candy.
“Asshole!” She yelled. “What the hell?” She reached across the table and grabbed his bottle of vodka. “How did you do that without puking?”
“I just thought of that horrible joke. It was worth it.”
She grunted again and slid the bottle then the cards to him.
“Have to admit, I got you.” Jason shuffled the deck.
“You got me. And I got another one.”
Jason moaned.
“What do you call a happy apocalypse survivor wandering the earth?”
“I give up. What?”
“A nomad.”
Silence.
“Get it?” she asked. “Nomad. No… mad.”
“I get it. I get it.” After a couple seconds, he laughed and dealt the cards.
It used to be a strip mall. One of those long, sometimes ‘L’ shaped places filled with shops. That was the nearest John could figure. The Subway was part of it. Another part of the mall was gone, destroyed and Ana brought John and Meredith to the Swirls Frozen Yogurt for the night.
After being with the Wreckers for hours, John finally stopped feeling so badly about how he behaved. Actually, it took a sick stranger to quiet him down and believe those who were their hosts were not those who attacked them.
The stranger was part of a Genesis Project but not the one at Marshal. John wanted more than anything to find out about the man, but the man didn’t say anything but two words.
He woke up, saw John, and said, “Thank God.” And then closed his eyes and died.
Was he alone, a sole survivor? Or did he fraction off like John’s group, looking for answers, for family?
John was alone at the yogurt place while Meredith attended to Bada. Another Wrecker woman brought them blankets, showed him how to use the small indoor fire pit for light and heat, and gave him two plates of food.