“Aww, it looks just like Charlie,” I exclaimed and picked up the squishy little thing. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Where did you find this?”
“It was at the dollar store. I just thought of Charlie when I saw it, so I grabbed it. I know you can’t eat it or kill zombies with it, but it made me smile.”
He gifted me with one of his charming grins and I grinned right back.
“Fuck, that is so sweet. Isn’t that sweet, Ito?” Lucas Marquez elbowed the driver, Vance Ito, and turned back and grinned at us.
“I wish someone would get me a stuffed animal,” Ito said whimsically.
“I just wish I could find that special someone,” Marquez sighed loudly and dramatically.
“Thanks for ruining my awesome, thoughtful moment, Marquez,” Zach growled from the backseat, kicking the back of his seat. I couldn’t help it. I dissolved into a fit of giggles adding to the immaturity of the whole thing.
“Aww, boss, I’m sorry. If it makes you feel better, I won’t be getting any tonight either.”
“Just his usual date with his right hand,” Ito quipped.
“Oh, like you ain’t hiding in the closet with that 1996 copy of Hustler that Duke found.”
Marquez mimed exactly what Ito was doing in the closet and my giggles turned to hiccups.
“Y’all are disgusting,” I hiccuped.
“Ignore them. Where were we?” He pulled me closer to him, until I was almost sitting on his lap, and I nestled the little stuffed dog on my knee. “Aren’t I a very thoughtful and kind…er…what are we?” He looked at me and winced.
“Manfriend,” Ito supplied.
“Beau,” Marquez snickered.
“Lover,” Ito said in a very suggestive voice.
“Fuck off, pricks.” I slapped both of them in the back of the head and they moaned in exaggerated pain.
“Whatever you want to call yourself, Zach, just as long as you know you’re mine,” I whispered so the idiots in the front couldn’t hear us.
“When we get home, I plan to show you just how much I belong to you.”
“Well, we better unload quickly,
lover
.” I accentuated lover and broke out into another fit of giggles.
“Nice,” he sighed.
FIFTEEN
Dollar Store Dumbass
Days ran into weeks and soon a month had passed. It was a Thursday, or at least I thought it was Thursday, it was hard keeping track of days now that last year’s calendar was gone and no one was printing up calendars for the new year. All I knew was it was January and the bitter cold of the wet New Orleans winter had taken hold. It was also a supply run day andy I was on the run with Romeo and Cole Peters. Cole’s wife was in a panic because she had missed her last period, so Cole was on the hunt for a pregnancy test and tons of vitamins just in case. Romeo and I were there to round up any food and pharms if we could locate them.
We had decided to push up the main drag along Chef Menteur Highway. I knew there was a dollar grocery somewhere up here and hoped that it wouldn’t be too looted.
When we pulled into the parking lot, the broken front window and cigarette boxes strewn along the sidewalk had me doubting there was anything left, but we pushed inside anyway. The pregnancy test was easy to come by. No one was looting that in the end of days, but food was a bit harder. We scrounged up a few cans and Romeo landed a bit of over-the-counter drugs but nothing to write home about. We were about to brave the Winn-Dixie across the street when we heard engines.
They were coming from the west. There was nothing out here. There was no reason for people to be pushing this far out into the swampland. They should have just gone down I-10 and crossed the lake on the Twin Span. This was the reason we were out here.
Yet, there were a few big vehicles coming right for us. Friend or foe?
“Hey, you guys hang back. I’m going to make contact,” Romeo said and like the wuss I was, I hid in the store.
When the caravan spotted Romeo, the first vehicle pulled into the parking lot. It was a rugged looking SUV, followed by an RV and then another SUV.
I wanted to see who got out of the vehicles, see if they looked friendly, but the storefront was all glass and I didn’t want to give away my position, so I unholstered my gun and slipped behind some shelves. Cole took point on the other side. If there was trouble, we could make it to the door easily.
I heard the mumble of male voices and the slam of doors as God knows how many people exited the vehicles. I was such a dumbass for leaving Romeo on his own. I was about to just say fuck it and come out, guns drawn, not caring what type of people these fuckers were, until my whole body froze at the sound of an elated shout.
“Romeo, is that you, you son-of-a-bitch?”
Blake.
Blake.
It was Blake.
I would have known that voice anywhere. And who else would have known Romeo on sight?
“Who else is with you? Are you guys still on S-Island? I came home. I fucking came back. We fought our way through Texas, shit…who else is here?” His voice sounded panicked, like he couldn’t believe what was happening.
I guess I had to go out there. It took everything in me to force myself to walk out that door. Cole wasn’t that far behind me, but I felt like there was a spotlight on me as I revealed myself, my gun still at my side, my finger on the trigger.
Blake looked even better than the last time I had seen him, even though he was a bit dirtier and more rough looking. His hair was greasy and his clothes were torn, but he was still so handsome and strong.
Our eyes met and I saw a million emotions flit across his face. I had barely crossed the threshold before he was running to me and wrapping me in his arms, his mouth on mine. I should have pushed him away, but I didn’t. It was Blake.
SIXTEEN
Big Island Blues
“Lex,” he repeated my name over and over again as he kissed my face and cheeks. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again.” And that was the tipping point that had me pushing him back and stepping away from him, trying to ignore the hurt look on his face.
“You just fucking left,” I pushed at his chest and the bastard didn’t even move which pissed me off.
“But I came back.”
“Welcome home.” I turned and walked toward our truck. To give him a warm welcoming feeling I gave him the one fingered salute over my shoulder. I didn’t look back. Fuck him. It might be a goddamn apocalypse, but there was still such a thing as a radio. Maybe the same fucking radio his ex-wife used to get his ass to leave me.
I wasn’t bitter. No not me.
“Who’s that?” I heard some shrill female voice ask, and from his murmured, placating response I assumed it was Clara, the ex-bitch. I guess he managed to save the ex after all. Must not have been in that much jeopardy if she was able to hold on long enough for him to cross a state to save her.
It felt like a T-Rex was in my head and roaring if I didn’t distract myself I would start screaming.
Cole jumped in the driver seat of the truck after a quick word with Blake and looked over at me. His pitying gaze made me want to kill something.
“At least you know for sure now.”
“Yeah,” I hissed. And he was right. Not knowing if he was dead or alive had plagued me with all sorts of nightmares. I might have kind of hated him, but Blake meant something to me and I did care if he lived or died. I just might have to spend a few more hours on the punching bag tonight to work through a few issues.
“He picked up ten people on his trek back, including three children. Our little compound just got a lot bigger.”
“He fucked up our supply run though.”
“I managed to get a pregnancy test. Grace is gonna be pleased.”
“There’s that.” I said through gritted teeth.
“Shut up and look on the positive side of things, Lex. This will make things a bit more interesting,” Cole laughed.
I just rolled my eyes and sulked for the entire ride home, only perking up when we encountered a few zombies in the middle of the road and I got to hang out of the window and shank them with my new and improved knife-stick doohickey that I invented. It didn’t work that well. It made it through three zombie heads, but by the third the knife came off and clattered to the pavement. I guess I would have to come up with something a little sturdier than duct tape.
Blake was back. Fuck me.
SEVENTEEN
Blake the Conquering Hero
Everyone gathered in the barracks to welcome the returning hero.
All hail asshole Blake.
I noticed a little blonde sticking to his side the entire time. She was diminutive and she twittered when she laughed. I hated her immediately.
Zach stood by my side and took my hand. He leaned down and whispered, “How are you holding up?” He was so thoughtful, a guy I might still love came back, a guy I could have decided to get back with–and he was concerned about my feelings. I squeezed his hand and shrugged noncommittally and looked up in time to see Blake’s eyes on us, a dark look crossing his face. The evil jealous bitch in me wanted to fondle Zach in front of him, but I held back. I didn’t want to ruin Blake and Zach’s friendship, I wasn’t that depraved,
yet
.
It was great that he was back. It was great that zombies hadn’t chowed down on his face. It was great that he rescued his ex-wife and brought her back to our compound. It was right of him to go and save her.
Fuck, who was I kidding?
I hated the bitch. He was an idiot to leave.
I tuned into what he was saying, obviously sharing the story of their death-defying adventure.
“Clara was stuck in a hotel in downtown Houston with her sister, Madison. They had found Patricia.” He pointed to two other girls that were standing off to the side. “and were surviving on snacks from the vending machines and water from mini-fridges. They had blocked off the stairwells because the dead security guard was in the bottom of the stairwell, and they didn’t know who else was in the hotel with them, living or dead.”
I heard a snicker from next to me and looked over to see Hannah sidle up to me. The snicker was loud enough that Clara looked over at the two of us and frowned. She dismissed us quickly and moved closer to Blake.
“What a bunch of idiots. Let’s just stay in the hotel and wait for a man to rescue us. I didn’t have any respect for the girl before Z. I don’t know why I’m surprised.”
She shook her head as if amazed. I tried not to laugh at her comment, but she had hit the nail on the head.
What was the thought process there?
Let’s wait for a man to travel almost 400 miles to save us instead of helping ourselves? Did they just sit there and wait?
How they wrestled up a radio to get in touch in the first place was beyond me - if they could do that, why couldn’t they have gotten out of the hotel, or at least reinforce their location and get supplies? It didn’t make sense to me. And why couldn’t Blake have radioed when he got there and let us know he was alive, the little voice in my head added? He probably didn’t plan on coming back.
Wonder what changed his mind?
“I don’t get it either,” I whispered back.
“He was always doing that, running to go get her out of some mess that she created since the moment I started working there. It always seemed she couldn’t do a thing by herself. I don’t like women like that. They need a daddy not a man,” Baby hissed back.
“When I got to Houston,” I tuned back into Blake’s story, “I had joined up with Liam and Bret and they helped me clear the lobby and get to the girls. Houston actually wasn’t as bad as we expected. It seems the zombies are grouping together in hordes, like packs, and they seem to like to move west. Every horde we skirted was moving in the same direct westerly path.” There was excited murmuring in the crowd. Our bridge that was the only way zombies could really get on our island was a southeast path and the only westerly route headed in our direction was a two-lane highway. That was one less thing we had to worry about if what Blake said was true.
He smiled and nodded at everyone, his quick mind understanding their thought process. “It was harder heading out of the city. Going east we faced a lot of packs. I had used the Humvee we left at the docks, but we lost it on Hwy. 90 coming back. If it wasn’t for Ray, who was driving this big ass dually with a cow catcher on the front, we would have been zombie food. He just plowed through them like they were bowling pins and we had to climb out of the top of the Humvee and get into the bed of his truck. I miss that truck.” He laughed and was joined by a guy wearing a cowboy hat.
“Yeah, that was a great truck,” Ray said in a thick Texas twang. “We made it what, 100 miles in that thing? ’Til we busted a tire on some spikes that were laid on the roadway.”
“Someone intentionally put down spikes in the road?” Grace asked looking horrified.
“Yes ma’am, the world ain’t like it used to be. Bad and good people survived and, unfortunately, the bad people had a lot of guns when the shit hit the fan. They were ambushing people for their vehicles and food. They didn’t see Blake coming though. The moment we realized it was an attack by humans and not zombies, he hid and took them out before they could take us. They were keeping the women and children and killing the men. That’s when we added Phoebe, Millie and Mark to our little party. Later we scooped up Orlando, found him holed up in a burger joint near Jeanerette.” Ray nodded to an overweight man with dark skin and hair, who just shrugged his shoulders when everyone focused their attention on him.
“So, that’s basically it,” Blake laughed. “We made the entire journey sticking to highway 90. The westbound lane was backed up, but eastbound was clean and clear. We only ran into some issues when we went through large towns. Luling was a little sketchy and going through the West Bank was even worse. But we made it.”