“What are you thinking?” Fred asked.
“I’m thinking that it’ll take a couple more fires to burn all of those corpses, but I don’t think I’ll do it. Maybe we should just leave them there, rotting in the sun.” I glanced at Fred to see if he had anything to say on the matter. He merely grunted. I took that as his way of agreeing with me.
Neither Terry nor Andie joined us for lunch. I suppose they were getting reacquainted. Janet didn’t make an appearance either. Instead, she chose to brood alone in her bedroom. Julie fixed her a plate and carried it to her room. Personally, I wouldn’t have been so nice. So, lunch consisted of Julie, Kelly, Jessica, Wanda, and yours truly. Personally, I thought the company was quite nice, but it would have been nicer if Julie was playing footsie with me under the table like she used to do.
“Tell me what’s been going on at the school?” I asked Kelly as we ate.
She frowned and poked at her food with a fork. “Everything was going really good for a while, and then it seemed like the mood of the whole group changed overnight. It was tense. Social conversation stopped and people only spoke to each other when they had to. Rhonda and I were worried we’d done something wrong.”
“How was Anthony?”
“He never said anything that would creep you out, but looking back, I remember several times I was doing laundry or something and I would look up and he’d be there staring at me. I thought it was odd, but it never unnerved me.”
“He never said anything creepy?” Julie asked. Kelly shook her head.
“He was always on the quiet side, but he’d stare. Except when Carla was around, and then he mostly stared at the ground.”
“After we left, when we told them about Anthony, how did they react?” I asked.
Kelly frowned. “After you guys left they hurried into a back room. Rhonda and I weren’t invited. When they came out, I tried to ask them what they had talked about, but nobody would say anything to me.”
“That figures,” Julie muttered. I saw Wanda staring at me.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked.
“I think it’s safe to say our relationship with the Huntsville crew has soured. They’ve made a home for themselves in the school, so we’ll just let them be.”
“What about Rhonda?”
“I asked her if she wanted to come with us,” Kelly said, “but she said no. She said all of the kids had bonded and she didn’t want to split them up.”
Wanda sniffed. “It’s just as well I suppose, we’re out of bedrooms,” she stared at me again. “What about Janet, is she leaving?”
I looked over at Julie, who was staring at me as if I were about to commit a terrible atrocity. I slowly shook my head.
“She has nowhere else to go. Chet’s crew made it clear she’s not welcome back. The Huntsville group doesn’t want her either. I’d try to fix her up with Konya, but he’s not that stupid.”
Wanda actually chortled, but Julie gave me a withering glare.
Rowdy is dead. Our compound was assaulted in the night by zombies and Rowdy was bitten. We used the same protocol when Zach was exposed, but it didn’t do any good. I sat with Rowdy and watched as the disease changed him into a monster. It took about an hour or two. He kept lunging at me from inside the cage. After ramming his head against the bars for several minutes, he paused long enough for me to get a shot in.
It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.
Anyway, enough about Rowdy. We gave him a good burial and there’s nothing else I want to say about it.
Zach said the assault was not a random act of zombie violence, but rather it was planned out. How those mindless, stinking things can plan anything is beyond me, but they obviously did. Zach also pointed out that all of the zombies we killed were adults. There were no children in the group.
The body count totaled 297 of the bastards. We’ve killed well over two or three thousand in the past two years, but they still keep popping up like cockroaches and I have to wonder if it will ever end.
Oh, I forgot something important. The one Zach called Big Bastard was in with the group that attacked us. Zach seems to believe he was the one who somehow got all the other zombies to team up. Anyway, Zach ran him over and cut his head off. So, no more Big Bastard.
I should point out that on the morning after I had to kill Rowdy, the queen bitch, also known as Janet, pissed me off and I beat the shit out of her. Instead of continuing to live in the same house as her, I moved in with Terry in the old homestead that Zach and Rick used to live in. Kelly has moved back in at the main house and is living in my old bedroom. Janet still lives there. Zach refused to kick her out because he loves Julie so much and she didn’t want her mother kicked out of the house with nowhere to go. The bitch is very careless and I strongly suspect she’s going to meet up with a fatal accident one day.
Konya comes and goes. He’s a lone wolf. I don’t think he’s gotten over the death of his wife yet, and can only stand to be around people in small doses.
Bo and Penny came to visit yesterday. They seem to be doing okay. Penny confided to us that she’s pregnant. They said the mentally disabled fuck-sticks from Huntsville are doing okay, which is irrelevant. I don’t even know why I’m writing about them. Speaking of which, Penny said her former friends (Chet’s group) are shitheads and lazy.
Apparently, we’re going to have a bumper crop this year. We’ve only lost a few cattle, and even though we’re plagued with deer and rabbits getting into our gardens, they don’t eat too much. They used to irritate the shit out of me until Zach pointed out we’re merely letting them fatten up, and then we’ll kill off a few of them.
I’m not sure what else to say. We are going through the motions of survival, and we’re succeeding, but there are only small happy moments in our lives. The rest is a continual struggle, and we all know it’s not going to change for the better. I’m thankful I have Terry. I would never admit it, but I feel sorry for Kelly. She doesn’t have anyone and I guess I can understand why she did what she did with Terry. I hope Jessica and her find someone to love one day. – Andie.
I was on the back end of our fence line, looking for any problems or breaks in the fence when I spotted a car on the side of the road with the hood up. The horse I was riding, Hank, nickered. I spotted the vague outline of someone under the hood, apparently tinkering with the engine. I pulled my rifle out of its scabbard and pointed the barrel in their general direction.
“Hello!” I shouted. To my surprise, Carla’s face appeared from behind the hood.
“It stopped running,” she said. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with it.”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” I replied. I was wary, but I wasn’t going to abandon her. I nudged Hank into a gallop and headed back to the main gate. It took me a couple of minutes before I made my way back to her. She was bent over the front of the car, wearing faded jeans that were tightly stretched across her backside, tinkering with something.
“Have you figured out what’s wrong with it?” I asked while making a point of looking for weapons. There was no holster on her hip, no shoulder holster, nothing in her hands. She responded with a helpless shrug.
“I think there’s something going on with the fuel injection, but I’m afraid I’m not very good with cars.”
“May I ask what you’re doing riding around in these parts?”
She straightened up and turned to face me. I couldn’t help but notice the tee shirt she was wearing had a vee cut neckline and it looked like she was wearing one of those bras that pushed her boobs up. I quickly looked up at her face.
“I had to get out for a while,” she replied with a sigh. “I know it sounds funny, but there are times when I need my own personal space,” she looked around. “This morning it was so pretty out, I decided to jump in the car and ride around before it got too hot. I didn’t realize where I was until now. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
I watched her a moment longer. Her story seemed questionable, but I saw no hostility on her face or body language, nor did I see any weapons. She must have known what I was thinking.
“My gun is in the car, if that’s what you’re looking for,” she said. “If you’d be nice enough to help me get this thing running, I’ll be on my way.”
I looked around once more, but seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I slid the rifle into the scabbard and dismounted. Hank immediately headed for the side of the road and started nibbling some grass.
“I don’t have any tools with me, but maybe we can figure out what’s going on. You didn’t run out of gas did you?” I asked. Carla frowned.
“I don’t think so,” she replied. I walked back, turned on the ignition, and looked at the gauge. She had over a half a tank. I also noticed her handgun sitting in the passenger seat, exactly where she said it was.
“No, you’ve got plenty of gas,” I said and was about to try to start it when suddenly, Carla was standing beside the car pointing a gun at me with both hands. It appeared to be a Glock model seventeen. It was only a nine millimeter, but more than adequate enough to kill me. She definitely had the drop on me.
“I had it hidden,” she said smugly. “Get out very slowly.” I maintained eye contact with her as I slowly got out of her car. “Face away from me and put your hands on the roof of the car,” she demanded. Seeing no other option at the moment, I did as she ordered. She walked up behind me and pressed the barrel of her weapon into my backside.
“I have no doubt you can overpower me, but before you can do it, I’ll pull the trigger and give you a new asshole.”
“I understand,” was my only response. If she wanted me dead, she would have already shot me. I waited to see how she was going to play this thing out and kept my hands on the roof of her car as she relieved me of my trusty Kimber handgun.
“Now what?” I asked as I felt her back away.
“Don’t bother going for the gun in the seat, it’s unloaded. Turn around slowly,” she said. I obeyed and kept my hands up at shoulder level. She tossed my gun over the fence and moved forward, pressing her gun against my gut.
“You murdered my husband,” she declared.
I stared at her. “Nobody murdered him. Fred is the one who did the honors of eradicating his disgusting life from this planet, but I assure you, I would have done it if he had not beaten me to it.”
She stared at me with a blank expression. I wasn’t sure what emotions were surging through her. Hell, for all I knew, she was on the verge of putting a bullet in me, but I wasn’t going to beg.
“Why shouldn’t I kill you?” she finally asked.
“I can answer that with a question, what is the reason you think you
should
kill me?” I countered.
“Whether you or Fred pulled the trigger, you’re responsible for his death,” she retorted. I shook my head.
“You’re mistaken. It was
his
actions which lead to his death. If you don’t believe me, follow me back to the house and you can speak with Jessica.” I looked at her closely. “If someone did to you what Anthony did to Jessica, I’d kill them as well.” I waited for her to respond and carefully watched her trigger finger.
“Grab my tits,” she suddenly demanded.
“Uh, what?” I asked. She lowered the barrel of the gun to my crotch.
“Do it,” she demanded again. Seeing no other option, I complied and tentatively put my hands on her breasts. “Squeeze them.”
I squeezed lightly. Yep, she was wearing a push-up bra.
“Do you like them?” she asked.
“They’re very nice, yes.”
“Anthony hadn’t touched them in over a year,” she said quietly. I nodded and started to drop my hands. She prodded me with her gun. “Don’t let go, squeeze them like you want me.”
Seeing no alternative, I squeezed them tightly this time. She let out an involuntary moan as she reached out with her free hand and stroked me. After a moment she chortled and grinned coyly.
“I can feel you getting hard. You’re a typical male, Zach.”
“My wife is seven months pregnant. I’ve not had sex in longer than I care to remember. To steal an old movie quote: my dick gets hard if the wind blows.”
“You know you want me,” she said huskily. Yeah, my hormones were raging, but I shook my head slowly.
“Regardless of what I may want, I’m still in love with my wife. I can’t be unfaithful to her,” I said and slowly removed my hands from her breasts. “I’m sorry.”
She stared at me intensely for a long minute.
“You’re a bastard,” she finally exclaimed. She then lowered her gun, pushed me aside, and got in her car. She started it and then stared at me.
“Put the damned hood down, if you don’t mind.”
I readily complied and jumped out of the way before she ran over me. I stood there dumbfounded and watched as she drove out of sight.
“Well, that was damned confusing,” I muttered to myself and whistled for Hank.
Julie listened to me quietly as I told her what happened. I didn’t spare any of the details. If I did, and she found out what really happened later, well, I imagine it would not have been pleasant.
“Jesus, Zach. There are too many horny women running around here,” she said when I finished.
“Yeah, I guess.” I didn’t know how else to respond. I thought there was more to it than a woman who hadn’t had any sex in a while, but since Julie didn’t blow up at me, I thought it best to keep any other opinions I had on the matter to myself, and simply be thankful.
Fred joined us for dinner. After cleaning the dishes, the two of us sat on the back deck together. I told him of my encounter with Carla.
“Next time you see her, you’ll either need to fuck her or kill her,” he said dryly. I snorted and chuckled.
“You’re funny.”
“Did you tell Julie?” he asked. I nodded. “How’d she take it?”
“Better than I thought she would. She made a smart assed remark and then the matter was dropped.”
“How’s it going between you two?”
I shrugged. “Better than before, but she’s not the old Julie,” I inhaled and sighed. “She told me the other night she still loves me, but she wasn’t certain she was in love with me anymore.”
Fred glanced over at me, but said nothing. We changed the subject and discussed issues around the farm until the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Fred stood and stretched.
“I’m going home. Don’t worry about the gate; I’ll take care of it. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I watched him leave and then went around checking everything before going inside. The women were sitting at the kitchen table playing cards. Frederick was in the crib playing with one of his toys. I got him out and held him as I began reading a new book. He was restless and wanted to crawl around on the floor. After a minute, I stopped reading and watched my son exploring every nook and cranny in the den, all the while, hoping he wouldn’t stick any foreign objects in his mouth.
This was our life now. My days were spent working the farm, with an occasional trek into one of the towns or nearby suburbs to scavenge. When we ventured out, we’d encounter the random zombie, but never any groups larger than a dozen or so. I imagined if we ever ventured out further than the twenty mile radius we confined ourselves to, we’d encounter large groups, but ammunition and fuel was limited.
After working on the farm all day, I’d come home in the evening and act like we were one big happy family. It seemed to be a never-ending cycle. I looked at Julie sitting at the table. Somehow, our bond between each other had eroded and I had no idea how it happened.
I would have left long ago if not for the little rug rat crawling around and our unborn child who was due sometime around September.
Julie looked up and saw me staring at her. It used to be whenever we caught one another staring, we’d smile. There were no smiles now. She held the look a moment longer and then went back to her cards.
It was two weeks later when I saw Carla again. She was parked in the same spot as before, but at least she didn’t bother putting the hood up. I walked Hank up to the fence as she got out of the car. She was wearing a pair of loose fitting jeans and a black tank top. It was tight fitting and accentuated those perky breasts of hers. There was no weapon in sight, but I kept my assault rifle handy.
“You’re very predictable,” she said.
“How so?” I asked.
“Every two days at about the same time, you ride around, checking the fence.”
I nodded at the observation, realizing she was right.
“Why don’t you come over here and join me? We can talk,” she said with a tentative smile.
“Hmm, I think I’d like to keep the fence between us this time,” I replied.
Carla chortled. “If I wanted to kill you, I could have done it already.”
“Good point, but I think I’ll stay here.”
“Suit yourself. I guess I came off as pretty crazy last time, huh?”
I started readily to agree, but instead, thought better of it. “I suppose it was understandable. You’ve been through a lot. So, what brings you out, Carla?”
“I wanted to see how you guys were doing.”
I shrugged. “Decent for the most part, how about you guys?”
Carla shrugged. “About the same. Oh, we’ve got some new people who’ve moved in.”
“Very nice,” I replied, “tell me about them.”
“They’re a married couple with a fifteen-year-old son. They were living on a small farm outside of Fairview, but they kept having trouble with zombies. They’d heard the radio transmissions, even though we haven’t done that in a while, and they decided to come check us out.”
I nodded and looked her over. She was freshly bathed, and I even thought I detected the hint of some makeup. “You’re looking very nice today. How are you doing personally?”
Carla looked at me before looking off in the distance. “I have good days and bad days,” she stared at Hank for a moment and then looked up at me. “Mostly bad days. I want to apologize for the way I acted toward you. I spent a lot of time thinking about what you said and it made sense.”
“Your apology is more than accepted,” I thought for a moment before speaking again. “I’d like to ask you a personal question if you don’t mind, and I’d like a truthful answer.”
“You’re going to ask me if I knew what Anthony was doing,” she said. I nodded my head slowly. She bit her lip before she responded. “I never knew exactly what was going on with him, but I had suspicions. I always thought he was fooling around on me.”
She fidgeted a moment before continuing. “I even thought he might have been a closet homosexual. We seldom had sex.”
“Why didn’t you leave him?”
“It’s complicated,” she answered. I pulled one of my feet out of the stirrup and curled my leg around the saddle’s pommel.
“I’ve got time.”
She sighed heavily. “My little sister and I were raised by a single mom. She worked two jobs to make ends meet, but we were still what you would consider lower middle class, so we never had much money. When I got my realtors license, I got a job where Anthony worked and we started seeing each other. Anthony had proposed to me multiple times, but I kept turning him down,” she leaned up against her car and folded her arms. “I mean, he was okay, but I wasn’t sure he was the man for me, does that make sense?”