'Til Death Do Us Part (73 page)

“
So was the explosion this Buker guy or John?
”
Kong asked.

“
Oh
,
I can a
ssure you it was your Navy Seal,
”
Tommy
said
,
seemingly peering through the trees to the Talbot household.

“
How can you be so sure?
”
Kong asked him.

“
Because it was Michael Talbot,
”
Eliza said
,
striding up to the circle.
“
And apparently nothing short of the Rapture is going to take him off this earth. It makes no difference, now at least I know where he is and the whole lot of them can die simultaneously.
”

“
I just lost three
well-trained men, some of my best,
”
Kong said turning to Eliza, anger flushing his cheeks.

“
Perhaps you should have h
ad a better screening technique,
”
Tomas said smiling.
“
Maybe asked each of them what side they were on. Michael most likely would have told you the truth.
”

Eliza nodded in agreement.
“
I imagine
he would have…
right before he killed you.
”

Kong didn
’
t seem so convinced that the man that had called himself Buker would have been able to take him out, but he had just killed three
Special Forces
men and was still at large.
What did I get myself into?
“
Eliza
,
I do not think you were forthcoming in our agreement.
”

“
If you had doubts you should
have voiced them before we left,
”
Eliza told him.
“
Now organize another team.
”

I had my doubts when you ripped Randy
’
s dick off
,
Kong thought as he clenched his fists.

“
Ten this time…that should be sufficient,
”
s
he said.

“
Sufficient for what?
”
Kong asked, tr
ying valiantly to keep his cool.
He
knew Eliza would have no qualms about eliminating him and putting someone else at the top. He didn
’
t even consider hi
mself a pawn;
he was the board upon which the actual game was being played.

Hank hadn
’
t left Kong
’
s side since he got back and already he knew that legend of Buker or Talbot would be spreadi
ng across his men like wildfire.
He
had yet to figure out quite how that phenomenon worked
,
and something inside him told him he didn
’
t have the time left to figure it out either.

***

“
Can
’
t stay here, sun is going to be up soon and I
’
ll be stuck in dead man
’
s land. And me being covered in gore like this, someone in that house is going to think I
’
m a zombie and
that
I somehow got pas
t
the fence.
”

Minefield or not, I had to leave the spot I was becoming rooted to. I guess it shouldn
’
t have surprised me how easily I traversed the gap
,
but it did. Now I was just hoping I wasn
’
t smack dab in the middle of a minefield and everything would be
A-Okay
. I was within fifteen feet of the deck which was
a good ten feet off the ground.
I was happy and slightly dismayed to see that the stairs had been removed. I did a once over around the bott
om part of the house.
There
was no way in
,
it was completely shuttered off with steel plating. I looked up at the decking overhead.

“
I should have brought Greta,
”
I said.
“
Okay let
’
s do the math, I
’
m almost six
feet, give or take, mostly give…
but whatever.
T
hen if I outstretch my arms
,
add another three-ish feet, I really need to only jump up about a foot and I can grab the edge of the deck.
Subtract from that, I
’
m a
forty
ish white guy and I
’
m still fucked.
Wait…
half-vamp trumps white. Let
’
s give it a go.
”

I backed up a few feet
,
still not convinced that I had somehow miraculously crossed a minefield and I didn
’
t want to throw that to chance again. I ran and jumped not taking into account my added
abilities;
I almost planted my face where I thought my hands
were going to touch.
That
would have been awesome, me knocked out under the deck after smashing into it.

I grunted as I pulled myself up and over, but only because it felt like the right thing to do.
“
Why no guard?
”
The house appeared to be blacked out, but I could see some light
spilling from around the black
out curtains. I walked to the back door and turned the unlocked knob. My heart lurched at how easy it could have been for the assassination team and then I entered.

Mike Journal Entry 15

“
Miss me?
”
I asked a shocked room full of the people I loved the most in the whole world. Blood, gore, sinew and a fair amount of entrails hung from every exposed part of me. Henry was the first to react. I hadn
’
t seen him leap since he was six months old and there was a particularly tasty shoe of Tracy
’
s that h
e had enjoyed rending into bite-
size
d chunks.
I had put it up on a coffee table thinking his little stubby legs would ne
ver allow him to regain his ill-gotten booty. H
e had proved me wrong and cost me two hundred bucks in the process (replacement fee of said shoes).

I stooped down a bit as he jumped into my outstretched arms, his stumped tail was going as fast as a hummingbird
’
s wings after a Starbuck
’
s double shot cappuccino. But even he had his standards
;
he would not lick my face.

“
Talbot?
”
Tracy cried
,
barely able to contain her surprise or shock.
“
Is that really you?
”
She
took
a half step towards me.

“
Of course it is!
”
BT said
,
barreling towards me.
“
Who the fuck else would wear a tin foil hat!
”
He swept me and Henry both up in his massive arms and twirled us around like we were in the Nutcracker ballet.

Apparently the explosion had ripped my knit cap off.

My father
’s
legs gave out.
“
I...I couldn
’
t stand to lose another child,
”
h
e sobbed.

Nicole
,
who was visibly showing her pregnancy now
,
ran to me with a huge box of sani-wipes.
“
Oh
, Dad,
I missed you so much
,
but I don
’
t know if I can hug you!
”
She sobbed and laughed at the same time.

Gary came running into the room.
I would learn later that he had been pretty despondent about coming home without me. A massive case of survivor
’
s guilt, compound that with the fact he had to tell our father he had lost his youngest son
.
And
it wasn
’
t such a great combination.

“
I saw you die
, Mike,
”
Gary said
,
not quite yet ready to let go of the
extra baggage he had been carrying around
.

“
Word of my dea
th has been greatly exaggerated,
”
I
managed
as I was twirled around like a record.
“
Any chance you could put me down now
,
BT? People are going to start to talk.
”

“
Let them.
”
He
crushed
me tighter to his chest. The added pressure pushing a little too much on Henry
’
s mid
section
,
we were rewarded with an air fouling mass of stench.

BT shuffled away from the stink as best he could, me and Henry still held captive.

“
I missed you
, too,
”
I told him,
“
but I
’
d like to kiss my wife.
”
BT finally put me down, but looked like he
’
d scoop me up in a moment
’
s notice.

“
You look like shit
, Talbot,
”
Tracy said stroking my cheek.

I grabbed the wip
e proffered from my daughter and vigorously scrubbed my face. It
burned and smelled like bleach—
it was bliss. Tracy leaned in, we kissed
,
and the world around us dissolved, there was nothing but her tender lips upon mine. When we finally felt the accumulated gazes of all of those around us
,
we pulled away.

“
I never thought I
’
d taste you again,
”
s
he cried
,
dipping her head down.

“
It
’
s gonna take more than fire, rogue cats, vampires and zombies to kill me.
”

“
Apparently.
”
She kissed me quicker this time.
“
You wi
ll never leave without me again,
”
s
he said with a force that made me kn
ow that this was no idle threat-slash-
reques
t;
it
was
merely the truth. Where had I heard those words before?

Justin came up
nex
t;
he was never a squeamish one.
He
wasn
’
t fond of public displays of affection
,
but just this one time he
obviously
figured he
’
d break his own rules as he hugged me tight.
“
It sucks
being the man of the family,
”
h
e smiled.
“
I
’
m glad you
’
re
here
so you can take it back.
”