Only The Dead Don't Die (17 page)

“He don’t need no other language. This
is
still A-mer-i-ca, dammit,” the thin, black man said, enunciating “America” emphatically.

It was LuLu’s turn, “he said subliminal, not bilingual, you moron.” Then LuLu rubbed her head and continued eating the soup Ella had served.

Scarlett fretted,
Wow,
things don’t seem to be so hunky-dory here. Maybe I should take my chances and go to Pinole?

The tall, skinny, black man finally noticed Scarlett. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when their eyes met, and he continued to gawk at her (like a creeper she thought repulsively), evidently forgetting that he was still holding a spoonful of noodles a couple of inches from his mouth that ended up splashing back in his bowl. His spoon clanged against the bowl as he pointed to Scarlett. “Hey, where’d
she
come from?” Nate gave her a knowing-nod sneer, and his eyes darted around the room as if waiting for an explanation of her presence.

Justin blurted, “Nate, Paxton, this is our newest member . . . Scarlett from Roseville,” he burst.

Paxton had been so occupied with his lunch that he hadn’t noticed her sitting at the other end of the table, until now. She felt an instant moment of panic and sheer terror, his eyes ripping off her flesh with a cold glare of a stare that refused to let go of her eyes. “Finally someone with real class,” Paxton grunted with approval.

LuLu set down her mug a bit too hard and with a quick flutter of her middle finger, flipped him off. Scarlett felt the heat in her cheeks rising, not with embarrassment but with anger, for his rude comment had been a blatant slap in the face to LuLu. Scarlett felt an urge to reach across the table and slap him. Despite her feminist views, Paxton didn’t look like the type of person she should alienate.
No, definitely not.

Scarlett felt the tension tightening in the room and wondered if Dean was aware of the stiffness she seemed to cause between Paxton and LuLu and Nate.
I guess this is what he meant about the Stockton Boys.
She casually looked around the dining room, scrutinizing each face, pretending not to notice the tension when she realized Ella wasn’t at the table. She could see how Paxton and Nate might be a bit intimidating to the young girl.
Jeez, Paxton already scares me, and I just met the man
. Still, she vowed not let some narrow-minded male chauvinist rattle her cage.

“So, Scar--lett,” Paxton enunciated slowly. “What’s it like where you come from—did you come across the military?” His silver-steel, piercing eyes felt like a spray of bb pellets ricocheting off of her soul.

“No,” her voice almost cracked.

“I heard they set up a refugee camp at the Kings’ old arena. Is that where you came from?” Paxton asked.

“Nothing there,” Scarlett’s voice croaked, “I mean, the arena is no longer there. It was burnt down to the ground by the time I got there. I heard that it might have been bombed—by our military,” her voice fell flat.

Paxton nodded; he didn’t look surprised.

“How many people you guys got?” Nate asked.

Scarlett ignored him while she slipped a spoonful of noodles in her mouth.
I’m flippin’ sick and tired of that question.

“Run across anybody out there—living that is,” Paxton continued, eyes still piercing into her.

“Actually, I did meet a young couple, but we went separate ways. They were in search of medical supplies.” She left out the part where they had stolen all of her food and supplies. “They did mention something about a survivalist group in Redding
.
Actually, the young couple I met said there are quite a few small groups of people—basically hiding out—until help comes.
But that’s about all the news I have. I’ve been searching for the rest of society—just like you guys.”

A somber feeling consumed her; it felt like it consumed the entire room. The questions finally stopped, leaving only the clanking of spoons dipping into the soup bowls as the conversation.

Finally, LuLu broke the awkward silence, “I don’t understand. There has to be help on the way—the military—National Guard?” LuLu raged and then stopped herself.

“I’ll tell you what I think,” Paxton said with vehemence. “No doubt the top military and government officials were privy to the new flu strain. When they couldn’t contain the situation, they left us to fend for ourselves while they’re sitting pretty in their overstocked NORAD bunkers—waiting for this bad acid trip to blow over.”

“Shit yeah,” Nate whined, “they probably got video cameras everywhere. They just be sittin’ on their asses watchin’ these stinkin’ mutha-fuckers eat everyone.” Nate laughed a disturbing hyena-like laugh.

Dean gave Nate the evil eye and cleared his throat rather loudly as if trying to regain control of the conversation. “There must not be too many of us left, at least not in this part of California. I mean, from Roseville to Stockton, to Winters, to Vacaville. And we’re it,” Dean said, shaking his head in denial. “Where in tarnation did everyone go?

“Everyone’s been zombified,” Justin said gloomily.

Dean frowned, “Now son, you don’t know that.”

“Nothing matters anymore, one way or another we all become one of
them
. I mean, what’s the point, knowing that when we die we’ll turn—even if we aren’t bitten,” LuLu ranted.

Scarlett wasn’t quite sure what LuLu was referring to. She knew the virus caused people to turn into these creatures, and she had figured out that if you were attacked or rather bitten (thinking if the saliva or blood made it into the bloodstream), then the virus was obviously highly contagious. Perhaps LuLu was just the overly-dramatic type.

Scarlett tried to cheer up LuLu, “I think you guys are doing a great job here and look on the bright side, help will arrive any day. Besides, it’s easy to outsmart
them
. So don’t worry LuLu, we’ll be fine.” As soon as Scarlett said it, she realized how idiotic she had sounded.

Scarlett wasn’t prepared for LuLu’s unwavering scowl. It looked like LuLu wanted to jump across the table and kick her ass. “Yeah, yeah, listen to Miss Pollyanna. From the looks of you, you don’t seem to have suffered so much. But let me tell you it’s a livin’ hell out there. And knowing that no matter what—you’ll turn into one of those things when you die is f’in horrifying,” LuLu belted out and continued to stare her down.

Oopsy, think I just managed to piss-off LuLu. That’s just flippin’ great.
But Scarlett wasn’t as concerned about LuLu’s ranting as she was with what LuLu had meant. Scarlett had no flippin’ idea that when you die you turn—creeper. Did that mean the virus was airborne?
That explains Miss Purlie’s suicide
. Now it all made sense. And she, herself, Miss flippin’ Pollyanna, felt a sudden wave of despair.

The dining room suddenly went quiet again as if everyone was preoccupied with their fears of mortality as humans and immortality as creepers. Except for Paxton, he continued to eye Scarlett boldly as he slurped a spoonful of noodles, making her extremely uncomfortable and increasingly angry.

“So what did you do back in the real world?” Paxton’s intense eyes locked onto hers, unrelenting. Such a simple question, but it gave her the heebie-jeebies, or was it the way he stared at her, probing every inch of her body. But she had to answer him, all eyes were upon her, eager with anticipation, except for LuLu, who continued to stare into her bowl.

“Actually, I’m a school teacher,” Scarlett started to explain.

“Hot damn, Paxton, we got ourselves a bona fide school teacher,” Nate cooed.

“That’s very do-able—” Paxton smiled, but his smile felt more like the cold-jagged-steel of a knife blade pressing against her throat.

If her cheeks reddened, it most certainly wasn’t from embarrassment; she was absolutely furious.
Jeez, what the hell’s wrong with these two?
The Stockton Boys are absolute creeps.
Is that why Ella wasn’t eating lunch in the dining room? Scarlett had noticed earlier the way Nate had leered at poor Ella.
I can probably handle them as long as I keep my distance. Still, I better be on guard while I’m here
, she decided. Scarlett certainly didn’t trust either of them.

The hotel had seemed like a great place to hang out for a while until things returned to normal. That was until Nate and Paxton joined them for that extremely uncomfortable lunch, and she had unwittingly managed to make a frenemy of LuLu. Also very strange was the fact that no one (not even her for that matter) had mentioned anything about their families. She found it disturbing.

Had everyone just given up?
I still have hope. Giving up is like accepting this new creeper-infested world.
If she was destined to turn into a soulless creeper; then really (like LuLu said) what’s the flippin’ point? That meant the meaning of life or death no longer held any validity at all, except an eternal curse. No, Scarlett refused to buy into the belief that it was all pointless and hopeless.
Help will come soon—it has to.

After lunch, Scarlett helped Ella with the dishes. It seemed like they expected Ella to do all the cooking and all the clean-up. Poor thing, maybe I
should
stay here and help sort things out, she contemplated. Ella needed someone to look out for her.
I could teach her a few things about how to be assertive and help build her self-confidence. After all, I did attend that two-day Self Esteem seminar last summer.

“Ella, thank you
so
much for that fantastic lunch,” Scarlett complimented and began rinsing off the bowls.

Ella gave a quick, timid smile and shooed Scarlett out of the kitchen like a pesky fly. “Oh, I
want
to help you. I can’t believe those jerks, those—those, imbeciles, BULLIES, expect
you
to do all the work. We’ll just see about that!” Scarlett huffed.

Ella giggled.

It made Scarlett think for a second, “Sorry, I do get a bit miffed sometimes when it comes to jerks.” (She was thinking about her ex-fiancé—what’s his name?)

Then Scarlett realized that Ella had laughed, which meant her vocal cords were probably fine. Ella most likely refused to speak due to trauma, probably something horrid she had endured these past few months. Nobody could blame her for that, and she hoped in time, Ella’s wounds would heal. Maybe Justin can help too. It was quite apparent that he had a thing for Ella, and Ella didn’t seem to mind so much. However, it was also obvious that Ella was afraid of Nate and Paxton.

On a hunch, Scarlett tried signing, “Thank you for lunch.” Unfortunately, it had been a while since she had taken that sign language class, so she ending up only signing, “Thank you.” Ella didn’t respond.
It looks like Ella hasn’t been mute for long or surely she’d know how to sign
.

Justin barged into the kitchen, “LuLu wants to see you. She’s ready to show you your room,” he said breathlessly like he had just run a marathon.

“After I finish with the dishes,” Scarlett nodded to Ella.

“Hey, I always help Ella with the dishes. That’s my job,” Justin said as if it was his favorite part of the day. Then Justin wiggled his eyebrows knowingly to Ella as if they had a little secret. Ella turned away, her face flushing.

“I see.” Scarlett wiggled her eyebrows in response. “I’ll help out with your phone thing later,” Scarlett promised and left the kitchen.
I thought I caught those two flirting
. Scarlett smiled.

LuLu stood in the lobby, “Follow me,” she demanded in a rather terse tone; they walked up to the third floor. “We only use the third-floor suites for our living quarters. Safer up here and the rooms are much bigger.”

“Here’s your key, room #306,” LuLu handed her a silver key. Scarlett expected the traditional electronic credit card key and was surprised by the actual metal key.

“Yeah, Dean installed regular doorknobs with actual locks and keys on several of the rooms,” LuLu answered in response to Scarlett’s surprised expression.

LuLu saw her to her new room, “See, you even have a balcony facing the back. There aren’t as many of those monsters back here.
They
tend to congregate in the front of the hotel.”

LuLu pointed to the engagement ring Scarlett wore on her left ring finger. “So, you engaged—when’s the Big Day?” LuLu’s tone sounded snarkish.

LuLu caught her off guard, “Uh, yeah, I mean yes—engaged . . .” Scarlett hadn’t meant to lie; she didn’t even know why she had lied. It would have been just as easy to say:
No, I’m not engaged, and it’s none of your flippin’ business.

“Good luck on that,” LuLu hesitated and seemed to be momentarily sincere.

“So the gals’ rooms are on this end and the guys rooms are at the other end of the hall. Lunch is at noon and dinner’s at six o'clock sharp. And, if you’re a morning person, we’ve got more boxes of cereal than Tony the Tiger. Dean’s always up hella early. And Ella’s usually up early too if you want a cup of hot tea or oatmeal. Me, let’s just say—I’m not a morning person,” LuLu said, sounding somewhat congenial.

“What about laundry? And showers?” Scarlett asked.

“Don’t use too much power or hot water. This place is running on generators. Dean’s liable to have a conniption fit if you use too much power. The rule is three-minute hot showers. I doubt anyone here really follows that rule,” LuLu admitted.