'Til Death Do Us Part (76 page)

“
He had suspicions about the other man that I killed.
”

“
Ah
,
self-preservation, I understand that all too well. None of this however has led me to any other conclusion except to kill you. We are not allies, you did not kill those men as a show of solidarity.
”

“
I have allowed
your zombies in past the fence,
”
Mrs. Deneaux said
,
quickly
running
out of ways to save her skin.

“
Is that true?
”
Kong asked
Beans
.

“
I don
’
t know,
”
h
e answered.

“
Find out
,
ass hat.
”

“
How did you come across one of my vials?
”
Eliza asked.

“
I stole one of th
e ones Mike brought in with him,
”
Mrs. Deneaux said as she licked her arid lips.

“
How is Michael?
”
Eliza asked with a faraway look as if she was asking about a lover from long ago that she still harbored feelings for.

“
He
’
s different.
”

“
How?
”
Eliza asked
,
snapping quickly back from her abstraction.

Mrs. Deneaux stood there for a few moments thinking about how to answer the question to her best benefit and could not think
of anything more convincing tha
n the truth. She was convinced
Eliza would smell out any falsehoods like a hound d
og on the trail of an escaped convict.
“
If I didn
’
t believe Michael would exact revenge on me
,
I would have stayed in that house. He is...determined, and whereas he was someti
mes non-committal or unwilling
to do whatever it took, I think that has changed. I do not think that you can win here.
”

Eliza
’
s full cruelty came to the fore.
“
You believe I can not destroy that pathetic man?
”
s
he roared.

Mrs. Deneaux put her head down waiting for Eliza to slash her open from neck to navel.
“
I am not always right,
”
Mrs. Deneaux said weakly.

Beans
came running back.
He
nearly handed Deneaux back her weapon.
“
The old bat was telling the truth, zombies are all over the yard
.
”

“
You will live long enough…
if only to watch him die!
”
s
he yelled.
“Kong, get her out of here.”

“
Beans
,
you screw this up and I
’
ll personally kill you. Take the lady b
ack to your truck and guard her,
”
Kong told him.

Mrs. Deneaux once again found herself thrust onto Michael
’
s side. She had
to hope that he bested Eliza, or
her
deat
h would immediately follow his.
Beans
opened up his
passenger door and let her in.
he walked around the front of the truck and got on his side.

“
What are you doing here?
”
Mrs. Deneaux asked him as he closed the door. He looked infinitely happy that he was no longer in harm
’
s way
,
although he quite possibly didn
’
t realize he had allowed a pit viper in his cab.

“
Just trying to stay alive,
”
h
e answered ashamedly.
“
Why are you here?
”

“
Same reason.
”
T
he wheels of survival began to spin in her head.

Mike Journal Entry 1
6

Angel
’
s words
hung in the air. Gary was the first one out t
here, he echoed her alarm. Mad J
ack looked quickly over the railing and ran back into the house. Within a few moments
,
a fire spouted from the trench, the sizzle of burning zombies was the only sound. The footbridge burned also, at least a couple dozen zomb
ies had made it into the yard a
nd were now all underneath the deck.

“
Well that
’
s a slight design flaw,
”
I told BT, looking over the rail trying to see the invaders. He shrugged his shoulders.
“
What
’
s the plan for this scenario?
”
I asked Ron.

“
We should get in. The gunmen are still out t
here,
”
Ron said ushering us in.

“
I
’
m not really thrilled with having zombi
es banging up against the house,
”
I told him.

“
Don
’
t worry about it
, Mad Jack has got it handled,
”
Ron told me.

“
Did you get laid?
”
BT asked in my ear.

“
What are you
,
fifteen
?
”
I asked him back.

“
Sorry
,
man, even while you were looking at the zombies you
’
ve got this shit-
eating grin on your face.
I was just wondering if you were now shitting out gold pieces,” he said referring to my failed love making attempt way back at the Big 5 sporting goods store.

“Even if I had gold pieces coming out of my ass, I wouldn’t offer you any.”

“I knew you did!” He smiled, pointing at me.

Tracy took that inopportune moment to show up at the doorway. “You get me in trouble and I’ll toss you over this railing,” I told the big man.

“We’re cool, man, we’re cool,” he said as he smiled at Tracy and went in.

“What’s that about?” Tracy asked as I went in.

“BT thinks I owe him some money,” I told her.

“What would he do with it?” Tracy asked as she followed me into the room.

“Gloat…laugh…probably both.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about?”

BT popped his head into the living room from the kitchen. “Ooh, Tracy you’re hair is a mess do you need a brush?”

“Fuck,” I mumbled.

Tracy spun on her heel.
“
You told him?” she accused me.

“He guessed
,” I said, throwing my hands up.
Like what was I supposed to do?

“I hope you enjoyed it because that’s the last apocalyptic sex you’re going to have!” she said as she left the room.

“Man, that’s why I’ve never dated redheads,” BT laughed. “Don’t sweat it she’ll get over it.”

“I didn’t do anything for her to ‘get over’, that was you remember?”

“Oh yeah, sorry about that!”

“Hey, Mike, could you see if the zombies are moving away?” Ron’s voice drifted down from the attic.

I went over to the window. “I’ll be damned, they’re walking into the fire.”

“Mad Jack’s magic box,” BT said as he came up next to me. “He’s been working on a giant one.
We
got it mounted on the roof.”

“Holy crap, what’s the range?”

“Just about the fire pit,” BT said.

“Wow.” I walked to the door leading up to the attic. “That’s a roger on the zombies, they are now deep-fat fried.”

“That’s gross, Mike, but thanks,” Ron said looking
down
from the
top
of the stairs.

“Was that gross?” I asked BT.

“A little bit.” He held his finger and thumb close together.

“Huh, I didn’t think so.”

“You going to apologize to Tracy now?”

“What, are you fucking nuts? I’d rather go outside. Wait, why do I have to apologize? You’re the one that did it.”

“Admitting fault is the first step.”

“One would think that someone who speaks the words would understand their meaning,” I told him.

“Oh I see what you’re doing there. It won’t work, I’m smarter than you.”

“Great, Joe IQ, got any ideas about our friends out there?” I asked him.

“Well, the magic box works great, but I can’t imagine Miss Congeniality is just going to stand by and wait us out,” BT said, getting serious for the moment.

“Miss Congeniality, that’s some funny stuff, can you imagine Eliza in a beauty pageant?”

“I can’t even imagine her trying to smile. Not enough Vaseline in the world to keep that upper lip from sticking to her blood-coated teeth, and God help the contestants if she didn’t win.”

“Stop, man, or I’m going to lose it, I keep picturing her in a sequined gown parade waving to the audience.”

We might have gone on for a little while longer if not for the sound of an explosion outside. I ran to the sliding deck door, I had no sooner slid it open when a round lodged itself deep into the stucco next to my head. BT pulled me back with enough force that I could probably sue him for whiplash damages. Another couple of shots were taken, but without a target in sight they soon stopped. I scrambled over and grabbed my rifle.

I told BT thanks and crawled out the door, effectively hidden by the metal plating lining the railings. I wondered if, from the gunman’s angle, he could put any rounds underneath me. There was no metal there. I looked through the gun slot cut into the metal. I could just see the section of fencing that had been shredded with a hand grenade. Zombies were pouring in—that was bad enough—most were stopping at the end of the pit of their own forced volition or were being involuntarily pushed into the spikes and fire by their brethren as they all fought for limited space. They, however, were not my first concern, I could see the hunched over forms of men trying to stealthily make their way, threading through the zombies.

The explosion had been to make an entry point and the rifle fire was to keep us from seeing their advance. Eliza was making her move. “Trouble,” I told BT, who was on his hands and knees at the doorway to the deck.

“You don’t say?”

“More than usual, okay, smartass?” I asked him back.

“Fine, what’s going on?”

“I can’t tell how many, but we definitely have men coming. Get everyone on alert, we got a few minutes—the number of zombies is actually working in our favor. They’re having a hard time getting through.” I watched a few moments longer. I had counted at least six—possibly seven—men coming our way. I crawled back inside and waited for the troops to rally.

It didn’t take him long, the explosion had done most of the work. Absent were Ron and Mad Jack—who were still tweaking, the box, and sadly Erin, a kind-souled person who had not deserved the los
s
of her husband and my best friend. I shook my head; I could not afford to go down that dark path.

T
hen it hit me. “Where’s Deneaux?” I couldn’t stand the woman, but anyone that could shoot the balls off a moth was someone I didn’t mind having in a firefight.