Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine (19 page)

Felicia nodded.

“He couldn’t get your numbers, but
finally found out through another friend where you guys would be today. We were
looking for you.”

“I know it sounds weird, but we
really
liked them,” Felicia added. “For many reasons, but mainly, I guess, because
they didn’t freak out on us and get all weird like all the other Fanboys do.”

“Wait…wait…wait,” Tripper
exclaimed, holding up a hand. “You mean to say that
these
guys, two men
who probably have posters of you both up on their walls that they do unspeakable
things in front of nightly—”

“—Hey!” both men exclaimed.

“These two, who can’t even hold a
regular conversation with any normal woman they might meet on the street or in
a book store,” he continued, pointing an accusing finger at the both of them.
“These two didn’t freak out when they met you two beautiful, famous actresses?”

“We’re not famous.”

“Subjective. The question stands,”
Sarah supported her boyfriend.

“Fair enough. Then…no. Not at all.
In fact, they were really sweet. And funny. Oh my god, they were
soo
funny. They were like a comedy duo.”

Trip stumbled back onto a soft
couch resting against the back wall of Sarah’s office in defeat. “Snap.
Crackle. Pop,” he babbled. “The events of this morning have broken my brain. I
know now that I am completely insane.”

“How is this possible?” Athena
asked, walking in and motioning to Quinn that it was his turn to watch the
street. “How did you manage to talk to two actresses when you spilled your wine
into your own lap to end that date with poor Marcy Denim just so you wouldn’t
have to talk to her anymore?”

“Marcy wasn’t like us. She didn’t
even like Star Wars.”

“But, you can’t talk to women…”
Sarah said. “Why them?”

“Why would we have a problem
talking to them?” Joel asked. “I’ve known this woman for years. I mean, not
really, but I’ve seen her in enough shows and interviews to get an idea of what
a geek she is.”

“Yeah, and we’ve played all the
same games,” Gus added. “We’ve even met in-game a few times. We like the same
shows and books and had a lot to talk about.”

“We learned today that if we’d had
the guts to ask them out…” Joel said.

“…they would have said yes,” Gus
finished and both ladies nodded and hugged their new boyfriends.

 
At least
temporary-boyfriends-until-they-regain-their-sanity,
Sarah thought.
Maybe
not, though. They seem pretty cool.

“NO!” Trip screamed. “This is not
happening!”

“What?” Scooter asked him with an
evil grin. “You still trying to make believe the world isn’t ending? Look no
further, foolish Human! I gave you the deadly virus! I assaulted you with the
risen dead! Still you doubted. I showed you planes falling from the sky and
burning floats! But you are from Missouri, and you demanded more proof. Behold
mortal! Here is what you seek! Your friends with girlfriends! The end of the
world is nigh, indeed! Repent and Accept your Doom!”

Everyone laughed at Trip’s blatant
refusal to accept the facts as he pulled his dark hair in bunches, trying to
get a grip on his crumbling world. “I…can’t…we, no…don’t…never mind.”

“Oh shit. We don’t really have time
for this,” Scooter jumped from the rail. “It was so nice being safe that I let
it go to my head. We can’t stay here.” He sobered them up by pulling out his
axe and examining the blade for nicks. “We have to find a way to rescue Brick and
Boomer,” he explained to the others when he realized they were just looking at
him for more information.

“They’re somewhere around the
Liberty Memorial. That’ll give us two more sets of solid fighting arms to help
rescue Lola and Lucy.”

“They texted me that they’re on top
of the
Coffee
Plant
on The Plaza,” Athena appended.

“That’s not good,” Tripper noticed,
looking at the map they’d brought up on Sarah’s work computer. “They’re all right
smack in the middle of the parade route.”

“Well, we’re going to have to find
a way in and out. And then we need to find our families and get them to
safety.”

“We’ll need to do some recon around
town first,” Gus cautioned.

“And how do we do that with zombies
crawling all over the city?” Trip exclaimed.

“You know what I do for a living.
How about I climb that KCPT tower? I can get a great view of everywhere from up
there and radio you what I see.”

“I am sorry; what did he say?” a
deep, stilted voice asked from Trip’s lap.

“Hey Hef,” Gus answered, speaking
louder so the man on the radio could hear him. “I’m going to climb the KCPT
tower and do recon from there so the rest can find the safest path to pick
everyone up.”

“I have some video equipment you
can take up there and leave in place. It is solar and wind powered and we will
be able to log in to it and operate it from a remote. It will view a full
three-sixty if you can get it into a good spot.”

“Only place to do that would be up near
the top, most likely, and I don’t think we have the time for that. Even if we
do, I don’t have my helper.”

“What are you talking about, Guster
Buster?” Scaggs asked.

Gus noticed that his spine did a
little dance when she said his name. “I’m—I’m a rigger,” he explained.

“Shut yo mouth.” She snapped. “I’m
sorry…a what?”

“You know those towers all around
cities for TV stations and cell repeaters?” Tripper asked the wide-eyed starlet.

“Kind of hard to miss, don’t you
think? They’re everywhere.”

“Ever wonder who changes the light
bulbs on the top of those things?”

“No way!” she exclaimed with a delighted
squeal. “You do that?”

He blushed and nodded.

“That’s awesome, dude. This is my
new boyfriend here,” she pointed him out to the others with squared shoulders
and pride shining in her dark brown eyes.

“Dude,” she turned back. “That must
be the coolest fracking job in the world!”

“Um, no.” Scooter shook his head
avidly. “That job is for crazy people. I believe Gus is only a very shallow
step down from a total sociopath. And I only say ‘step down’ because—and the
others don’t believe me on this—I actually saw him express a genuine emotion
once.”

“Anyone who goes up that high on a
ladder has something wrong in his head,” Athena said matter-of-factly, nodding
her agreement.

“Yeah, it’s like a thousand feet
high and he’s up there without a harness half the time,” Tripper agreed.

“I wear a harness,” Gus countered.

“But you have to unhook it to
climb.”

“But I’m not likely to fall when
I’m climbing.”

“That’s
exactly
when most
people fall, dude!” Trip argued.

“I think I’d love that job,” Scaggs
actually moved closer to her new man, ignoring the continued, visually
distracting consternation of Tripper.

“Well, I
do
need a helper.
You sure you can handle the height? It’s kind of scary for most people.”

“Not to brag, but I once rode a
bike on these thin boards across the tops of the Himalayas,” she bragged.
“Hells yeah. I’d love to try this.”

“Oh my god,” Athena eyed the
red-haired girl intensely. “You were absolutely right. You two
are
perfect for each other. You’re both crazy.”

“What kind of self-respecting geek
is crazy enough to climb a thousand foot tower?” Felicia asked casually, not as
impressed as Scaggs by any means. She also felt that particular interest bordered
more on insanity rather than being a promising trait within a potential mate.
So she said so.

“I think it scares me that you
would like that,” she admitted. “Both of you.”

“It’s not hard to understand,
really,” Gus explained. “I used to climb trees to get away from guys trying to
beat me up. One day the trees weren’t tall enough and they came up after me, so
I jumped to a building and started climbing it. Then I tried light poles and
then whatever was nearest that could help me get away. It became a game. I
realized I could embarrass them in front of their friends without running away,
by daring them to climb things to get me—because so many people are afraid of
heights, and bullies most of all. They would climb and then get too high and
would freeze up, usually needing help to get down. But for some reason, I’m not
afraid—”

“—cause you’re a borderline
sociopath,” Scooter interjected. “You have to have emotions to have fear.
You’re missing half of your emotional range.”

“Not to mention half of
our
IQ,” Trip added.

“Eventually I was climbing towers
and buildings for fun,” Gus continued, ignoring his friends. “One day the owner
of one of the tall towers caught me and offered me a job to change the lights.
All I had to do is pass some tests and do a little training, but that’s how I
found my bliss.”

“Yes, thank you for that touching
insight,
Bliss
,” Hephaestus’ deep voice said from Trip’s speaker. “But
is this going to be a long story? I am wondering how long it will take you
girls to get here. I have some things to give you and I need a helper.”

“We have a helper for you,” Scooter
said, leaning down into Trip’s radio, smacking Trip in the back of the head as
the aforementioned lifted his hips from the couch and pushed Scooter’s face
down with both hands.

“Does he know a crescent from a screwdriver?”
the man on the other end asked.

“Does he know a what from a what?”
Calvin joked. It was an old, inside joke that they had both outgrown a long
time ago but couldn’t seem to stop using it.

“He says he’s a…what did he call
himself?” Tripper asked.

“Wheelright?” Athena asked.

“Wain…right?” Trip said, clearly uncertain.

“Millwright,” Sarah corrected. “My
uncle was one.

“Right,” Athena said.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

Hephaestus whistled. “That will
do,” he added.

“He’s also a blacksmith at the Ren
Fest. He made our armor for us.”

“Even better. Come quickly so you
can go get our friends. I have a feeling time is not on our side and I have
some nice little presents for you.”

“We’re gonna load up now,
Hephaestus. Hopefully we’ll be there within thirty minutes…closer to fifteen if
everything goes smoothly.”

“Be careful, Calvin.”

The group was shuffling out of the
room when the doctor came out of the thick-walled office looking grim, almost
ashen-faced, and pulled Calvin over. Athena followed, as did Joel.

“What’s wrong, Doc?” Calvin asked, a
little concerned that the old man might be changing into a zombie.

“They…they’re considering a Phase
Two Quarantine,” he said.

Calvin just looked at him
blank-faced.

“Phase Two is firebombing the
entire region.”

“Holy shit!” Joel coughed.

“Is that even legal?” Athena asked.

“Yes, I think that it is,” the
doctor answered in a solemn voice.

“Isn’t that a little extreme?”
Calvin asked the doctor.

“Yes. They are only considering it
if they can’t get Phase One finished in time.”

“What’s phase one?” Joel asked.

“They’re going to wall off a one-hundred
mile radius around Kansas City.”

“Can they do that?”

“Within hours, actually,” the
doctor admitted.

“Well,” Calvin replied calmly.
“Nothing we can do about that for now. How about your ride out of here?”

“They are planning to send in a
military team to take me out. I asked them to take you all as well, but they
refused.”

“Don’t worry, Doc, I get it,”
Calvin said.

“Yeah, it’s not your fault,” Calvin
added. “Trip may have saved
your
life, but we haven’t done anything for
them.”

“Well, by keeping me safe you may
have saved millions, and that
should
matter to them,” Doc practically
gnashed his teeth in anger.

“Listen, Doc, we have to go out for
a bit. Would you mind holding down the fortress?” Calvin asked politely.

“I see. Leave the old guy back to
die. My fortunes abound.”

“You know it’s nothing like that.
You should be completely safe here. If you want, I’ll leave Sarah back here
with you. You’ve seen how sharp a shot she is. But we need someone here to keep
an eye on things; you can serve several purposes being that guy.”

“For instance?”

“For instance, you’ve just shown
how important it is for you to keep in touch with your people so we’ll know
what we need to do and maybe when to get out of here. Also, you’re a better
shot than nearly everyone here so you can be in the balcony helping anyone in
the street who needs it. We’ll run the radio out to the balcony before we go.”

“I’m not sure a radio speaker on
the balcony is a good idea,” Athena cautioned, brushing her dark hair back and
putting it into a pony tail so she could put her helmet back on. “The sound
might attract unwanted visitors.”

“Well, we’ll hook up headphones so
the sound doesn’t travel all over downtown. But the main reason I would like
you to stay here is that we kind of need you to stay safe since you’re the only
one who knows the science side of this.”

“Yes, I would think you’d want me
with you so you could protect me.”

“From what Tripper tells me, you
can take care of yourself, Doctor,” Calvin pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

“True,” the older man smiled.

“But we still don’t know what’s out
there waiting for us. You should be safe in here, and I think that’s the most
important thing right now. If they send a team in to get you, it’s better that
they’re not chasing you all over town. They’ll know exactly where to come and
get you. You’re the most important person here right now, sir. You’ll just have
to accept that.”

“I kind of feel like I’m abandoning
you to your fate,” the doctor said morosely.