Curse of the Immune (8 page)

“Oh,” I remark, and we sit in uncomfortable silence for a time. I shift my butt around. It feels a little better on the cushions but only for a while.

Then Rudy says, “Okay, Lea, your turn. Tell me about yourself.”

“Not much to tell. Like I said, I live, or lived, with my foster parents and my brother.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you had a brother. I’m so sorry.”

“No, he didn’t get sick. We sort of got separated. That’s where I’m headed, to get help and find him. At least that was the plan when I was chased out of my house by my zombified foster parents.” I tell him the embarrassing story of me being chased all over the town of Cumberland.

“Well, you’re not going to find anyone, at least not any police, to help you find your brother. Do you have any idea where he might be?”

“Last time I saw him, he was going to his girlfriend’s to get her and bring her back to our house. He never returned.”

“I’m not going to bother telling you the odds he’s still alive.”

“He’s alive!” I jump up. “He has to be.”

“Then we’ll have to find him. Just tell me where his girlfriend lives. We’ll go tomorrow.”

I tell him, then ask about his friends.

“Don’t worry about them. They’re idiots anyway—loud, stupid, idiots, too stupid to stay alive. Besides, they’ve probably moved on by now.”

“And you think you have a better chance staying alive with two small kids and a chicken?”

Rudy smiles. “You guys are much better company. And all you need is a little training.”

“Yeah right. I freeze every time one of those things comes at me.”

“Wrong, you take a defensive position.”

I snort “That’s a nice way of saying I cower.”

“All you need is to learn how to attack and make that your reaction.”

“And you can teach to me?” I hope he can help me. I’m sick of having to be saved. I need to be able to take care of myself in this new world.

“Sure can.”

“Okay, Rudy, you’re hired.”

“First thing tomorrow.” He sets his watch to get up early.

“What time is it anyway?” I ask.

“Huh, just a little after nine.”

“Is there a radio in the house?”

Rudy thinks for a minute. “I saw one in the basement. Missing your favorite show or something?”

“Avril, the girl I heard on the radio today. She said she’d be on at nine.”

“Oh, cool. Just go down to the basement and go to your left. You’ll see an opened door. Go in and look on the workbench.”

“Um, can you at least come with me?” What? It’s a creepy basement.

“You can get it. I’m going to get some D batteries from my flashlights. Radio was probably running off a plug.”

“Do you have a light for me?”

“Sure.” He pulls out a small cylinder-shaped object from a large pocket on the side of his pants. “Don’t turn it on ‘til you’re on the cellar stairs and the door is closed. Don’t want any creepers coming ‘round.”

“Okay.” Man, I don’t want to go alone, but if I want to see if Avril is still somewhat safe, I guess I have no choice.

I follow Rudy’s directions and instructions, and in literally seconds, I’m back with an old-school boom box equipped with a tape deck and all.

Rudy puts in the batteries and gives it back to me. I switch the radio to AM and scroll to the end of the dial then back until I hear a familiar voice.

“No signs of life in the city from where I’m at. Just a lot of unlife, if that’s even a word. If it ain’t, it is now. Again, if anyone out there has the means to fight off a few hundred zombies, I’m at the WBSV studio on West Main Street. If not, then you probably have similar problems like me.”

Avril continues with her story, then signs off about fifteen minutes later.

“Poor girl,” Rudy says after I turn off the radio static. “And we thought we had it bad.”

“Yeah, this whole thing is crazy. Nothing will ever be the same, will it?”

“Look, we have a long day tomorrow. Go get some sleep. I’m gonna stay down here for a while.”

I say good night and go upstairs. Bruno stays with Rudy, and I find comfort in having two guards keeping the kids and me safe. I lie down on the floor, wondering if I’ll even be able to sleep. Staring at the ceiling, I think not of the horrors of the day or my brother, but of Rudy and what a great guy he is. Not to mention hot. I may have been able to dodge death, but Cupid’s arrow hit me right in the heart.

Chapter Thirteen

I awake to daylight straining its light up the staircase along with some noise coming from below. I look around, wondering where I am and why I’m on a hallway floor.

Once I see Maria and Guille sleeping, I remember the whole end of the world, zombie apocalypse thing. Then I remember Rudy, and my mood lifts.

Figuring the noise below must be him, I ease down the stairs slowly with my knife thing in hand just in case. I creep my way to the living room and see Rudy and Bruno aren’t there. I look into the kitchen and see Rudy walk by.

I take a breath of relief and go into the kitchen to find breakfast ready. Oranges and apples are sliced and neatly displayed along with grapes and bananas on a serving platter in the center of the table.

He notices me and smiles. “Good morning. I just threw some fruit together. We’d better enjoy it. This kinda stuff won’t stay fresh long, and if we don’t come across any fruit trees, this may be the last time in a while we get to have fresh fruit.”

I try to give him my best, most attractive smile to hide my excitement in seeing he wasn’t a dream. I must be nuts. The world has gone bye-bye, and I’m falling for a guy like I never fell for anyone. I mean, guys just never really noticed me before, and I never really cared. Now that I’m the last teenage girl on Earth, besides Avril, I care very much. I’m just glad the last teenage boy, besides my bro—

That’s right. We gotta find him. “Hey, when are we going to find Luke?”

“Relax, eat, and we’re going to do some morning training. Then we’ll be on our way.”

Maria and Guille come running down the stairs and attack the food.

“And good morning to you too,” Rudy says.

I sit and eat some grapes. They taste good. Rudy gives us each a water bottle and says, “Eat and drink up. We have a lot to go over.”

I don’t know what he has in store for us, and I don’t care so long as we get to Luke as soon as possible.

It doesn’t take long to finish, and I begin to feel anxiety growing within my chest. “Look, Rudy, can’t we worry about training after we get Luke?”

“It won’t take long. I promise. And where we’re going, there’s sure to be a lot of Zebs.”

Guille looks up. “Zebs?”

Rudy explains, “Yeah, you know like in Vietnam, the nickname for the enemy was Charlie, and in World War II, it was Gerry for the Germans. I figure Zeb is a cool name for a zombie.”

“Whatever. Let’s just do the training and go,” I say.

“Zebs, yeah, that’s cool,” Guille decides.

“Training? What kind of training?” Maria asks.

“Funny you should ask.” Rudy stands and walks to the door. The three of us follow out and to the backyard, where we see Rudy’s handiwork. Four zombies, or Zebs, are tied to four trees. They’re motionless and all have head wounds.

“I see you’ve been busy this morning.” I then see Bruno charging at me from the woods. When he gets to me, he jumps at my legs a few times. I squat to pet him. “Morning, little guy. I forgot about you.”

Rudy goes to one of the trees where an aluminum baseball bat leans against it. He picks it up and hands it to Guille. He then pulls a large knife from his belt and gives it to Maria. “This is a Ka-bar. It’s the combat knife of the marine corps.”

“Aw, why does she get a knife?” Guille whined.

“Because you’re stronger and I’m sure you know how to swing a bat.” Rudy turns his attention to me. “And I see you have the bayonet.”

“Rudy, I don’t know about this,” I complain.

“I’ve already killed them, so they can’t hurt you.”

“Yeah, but still this is just gross.”

“Look, we’re doing this. I’m not going anywhere with you guys ‘til I know you can take care of yourselves. I can’t do everything, and who knows when we’ll have another chance like this? I just want to show you how to use the weapons I gave you.” We all stay quiet. “Okay, hold your blades like you’re going to stick it in one of the Zebs.”

I hold mine in my fist, blade pointing up.

Rudy cracks a half smile. “That’s good for dicing some tomatoes, but this ain’t cooking class.” He shows me to hold it blade down opposite my thumb. He then pulls another knife from his belt and walks up to a Zeb, sticking the knife deep into its eye socket. The entire blade sinks in the thing’s skull. “You gotta kill the brain. Make sure you jam it deep enough.” He then yanks out the blade in one quick jerk. “Lea, give it a try.”

Oh man, I don’t want to do this. I walk to the next corpse and raise the bayonet to the dead thing’s left eyeball and stare at it. “Come on, stupid. Do it,” I say to myself. This is humiliating. I once again freeze in place, petrified by looking at a harmless undead that’s dead.

“Lea, it won’t hurt you. Just stick him.” Rudy sounds annoyed.

“I can’t do it. It’s just gross.” I lower my arm. “I’d not be right in the head if this stuff didn’t bother me. Just two days ago, I was texting my friends and watching TV, and just like that, I’m supposed to become this great threat to zombie-kind?”

“You only have two choices now: live or die.”

I take a deep breath. “I know you’re right. It’s just hard for me.” I raise my blade again and shove it toward the eyeball but stop an inch or so from my target. I hold it there for a moment, when the blade shoots into the eye. My hand holds it, but I didn’t do it. Rudy stands behind. He hit the handle of the bayonet as I hesitated. The noise it made was like a foot sticking in mud. Gross. I let go of the blade and back into Rudy.

“Don’t stop now! Get up there and pull it out! Finish the job!”

My teeth clench and my head heats like a kettle ready to burst steam. I feel like punching Rudy in the head. This I know I could do without any problem so long as he keeps yelling at me.

I think he reads the anger on my face and knows I’ve had it. He reaches over me and grabs the bayonet to pull it out. It makes an awful sucking sound. That along with the orangey congealed blood and a dead corpse missing most of both eyes makes my stomach turn, and I begin to feel not so great. Like lightheaded not so great.

Rudy’s talking to me, explaining something about the training exercise, when the ground starts to move and I collapse at Rudy’s boots, releasing my fruity breakfast all over them. If I didn’t feel so sick, I’d laugh. Wish I can see his face. I’m impressed he doesn’t move away, kicking puke off his boots. He just stays there like nothing happened.

After breakfast exits my gut and I heave a few more times, Rudy says, “If you’re done, get up and try it again.”

I clench my fists, pulling dust and dirt into them. All right, now he’s going to get it. Who the heck does he think he is anyway? I don’t remember signing up for any of this!

I slowly rise from the ground, thinking of how I’m going to rip into this guy. When I stand, I put my face into his… and see a look of concern. It just defuses my entire mood.

“Look, Lea, I’m sorry. I know this is hard for you. It’s not for me because I’ve been hunting, skinning, and eating animals for years with my dad. Taking out a Zeb is easy for me. You just have to find it in yourself to do these things. I want you to survive this crap.”

“I know. Luke used to kill spiders for me back home. Killing things isn’t something I really do, at all.”

“It shouldn’t be anybody’s thing. It’s just a task that needs to be learned. You need to become desensitized from Zebs, and then you’ll be able to do it all. I’m sure of it.” He then looks toward Maria and Guille. “You guys ready to give this a try?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I can reach the eyes,” Maria says.

“That’s where Guille comes in. The two of you need to work together to be able to take one of these things down. For example, Maria gets the Zebs attention and Guille whacks its legs out from under him. When it gets to the ground, Maria stabs him.

“For now, I just want Maria to know she can do it.” Rudy walks to the patio and picks up a lawn chair, placing it in front of a fresh zombie. “All right, step on up and give it a try.”

Maria holds her knife the way she was taught, walks up, climbs on the chair, and stabs the Ka-BAR straight into the right eyeball socket without any hesitation whatsoever. The knife is in halfway.

“Excellent! Now get down and, Guille, batter up!” Rudy pulls the chair out of the way once Maria’s on solid ground. I feel about the size of a mouse.

Guille walks up with the bat, and Rudy instructs, “Smack that Ka-BAR in the rest of the way.”

“No problem.” Guille goes to town on the corpse’s head. He hammers in the knife with about every other swing. When he misses, he hits the jaw or forehead and the nose once, until the knife is in all the way.

“Okay, okay, great job!” Rudy has to put a hand on Guille’s shoulder to stop him. Great, now I feel like an ant. The kids pass with flying colors, and I yacked on Rudy’s boots.

Maria comes over to me. “It’s like when you dissect frogs and things at school, just something you have to do.”

That doesn’t make me feel any better, especially seeing as how I dissected a virtual frog on the computer and it still made me sick. I turn and start to walk back to the house. I need to get away from here.

“Hey!” I turn to see Rudy running toward me. “Lea, forget about this. We all have different talents here, and when the time comes, I’m sure you’ll impress us all.”

“Yeah right.” The truth is I don’t want to ever have to kill or fight anything alive or undead. I may be afraid of zombies, but I don’t feel hatred toward them. I can’t even feel anger or malice. All I feel is fear. Besides, what if I break that barrier that keeps me from killing? What will I become? What’s the difference between killing a zombie and killing a human? We’ve lost so much already. I’d like to keep who I am, but if I refuse to kill or I’m simply unable to and that gets someone else killed, how could I ever live with myself?