Zombie Fallout 4: The End Has Come and Gone (8 page)

Gary
was nodding behind her.

“They need to go to Ron’s,” she said triumphantly.

It was a brilliant idea. Ron would take them in without even blinking. “Hey, which of you guys has a driver’s license?” I asked the three boys hopefully.

“I have a permit,” Dizz answered, obviously feeling self-important.

“Mike, that’s not what I meant. How much have you driven, Dizz?”
Tracy asked.

“I pulled out of the driveway once. Clipped the mailbox and then my dad made me get out, he was not happy,” Dizz answered, his inflated importance quickly deflating.

“Dad!” Justin yelled from the front doors.

“Company?” I asked.

He nodded in return.

Gary
grabbed his gear and ran to the front. “Fifteen, nope sixteen.” I could see him doing quick calculations in his head. “Scratch that, eighteen, oh where’d that one come from, nineteen. Does a crawler count, because that would make it twenty,” “I get it, there’s a bunch,”

“Yeah, ‘bunch’ will work,”
Gary
said, staring out the window intently.

“Couple of speeders, mostly deaders though,” Justin clarified.

“Thank God for small favors,” I said resignedly.

“Hi pretty lady. Can I get back in your arms?” Angel asked
Tracy .

Tracy
reached down and plucked the small child up. “Mike, I am not going to entrust these kids to a kid whose driving experience involves backing up in a driveway.” “Umm, it’s a very long driveway,” Ryan said, trying to help his friend recover some of his lost ego.

“Okay, so his main experience is driving down a very
long driveway and into a mailbox,” “That hurts, lady,” Dizz said.

“Twenty-five yards, Dad,” Travis said as he took position next to his brother and uncle.

“We
need
to take them, Mike,” Tracy told me.

That was the most sound idea, it really was. But I felt like Big Ben was ticking in my head, that elusive concept called time was slipping through my fingers. I, we, could not afford to lose the two days it would take to get them back and then us back on track. ‘
Crap ,’ I thought angrily. Leaving these kids here was a death sentence plain and simple. Bringing them forward was a painful death sentence. Bringing them to Ron’s was their only chance.

I loved
Tracy
for a myriad of reasons. She knew the math I was going through in my head, so she solved the problem for me. “I’ll take them back.” I was elated, I was depressed. The kids would be safe, my beloved would be safe, we would never see each other again. I hugged her just as our defensive gunfire erupted. Twenty zombies, three skilled marksmen, they should be able to make short work of it.

“Alright you guys,” I said, turning to the kids. “Grab all the crap you want to bring with you. We’re getting out of here.” Angel jumped down from
Tracy
’s arms and into her brother’s arms. “We’re going home Eyean!” she said excitedly.

CHAPTER EIGHT
– BT and Meredith (Plus One)

BT and Meredith had not been on the road more than a couple of hours when Meredith looked over towards BT for the fifth time, each time rolling her window down an inch or two more.

BT on as many occasions stole a sideways glance towards Meredith. He grimly did his best to cover his nose discreetly during the more noxious outbursts.

By the sixth time he could not take it. “What did your aunt make you eat? Damn it girl!” “Excuse me?!” she answered indignantly.

“Smells like pickled weasel in here. What the hell did you eat?”

“Me?? I thought that seat belt was so tight it was cutting your large intestine in half and it was leaking.” “So it isn’t you?” BT asked.

“God no! I thought you must be dying!”

“Pull over, I know of only one thing on this planet that could do
that.
” Meredith pulled over, a look of confusion on her face. BT ripped the belt buckle from its harness, guaranteeing that it would never work again. He opened the door and took heavy intakes of untainted air before opening the back door to look for their stowaway.

“Well son of a bitch. Hi Henry!” BT uttered genially.

Meredith was peering over the seat. “How the hell did he get in there? Should we take him back?” “Naw,” BT said, affectionately rubbing the dog’s proffered belly. “I’ve got a hunch he’s supposed to be here.”

CHAPTER NINE
– Talbot Journal Entry 6

Gary, Travis and Justin came in a few minutes later.

“All set?” I asked as I finished packing up the radio.

“Yeah,” Travis said, a little flushed.

Gary
responded by turning his head and vomiting into a convenient trash receptacle, and Justin resumed his vigil at the front window.

“Won’t be too long Dad before we get some more company,” Justin said.

“Yup, time has her finger in everybody’s pie,” I responded, my thoughts clouded with worry and anger.

Justin looked at me funny.

“Did I say that out loud?” I went outside, the putrid stink of the dead assailing my nostrils. “Oh yeah, that never gets old,” I said sarcastically. I walked over to the gas pumps looking over the abandoned cars. The third one I looked at was perfect, mainly for the reasons that the keys were hanging in the ignition and the tank was mostly full.

I had thought foolishly a few months ago that the parting with Paul and Alex was bad. That was topped tenfold when I left the East Coast Talbots, but that paled in comparison to what I was feeling now. I am not a perfect man, I do not claim to be. I am rife with shortcomings and my own sets of insecurities, but somehow Tracy has always been able to bring my better qualities to the fore. For twenty-three years she has been the vital piece that allows me to function correctly in a dysfunctional society. We were parting as cleanly as a rock breaks under the assault of a sledge hammer.
There would be, there could be no reunion , we were now two separate parts.
.

“Mike, you come back to me,” she said, grabbing the front of my jacket. I couldn’t look her in the eyes, mine were rimmed with tears. “Mike, you bring my boys back,” she said, softly beginning to sob. I met her eyes and she saw the truth. She let go of my jacket and stepped back, an inaudible gasp flowing past her clenched mouth.

“Mike you have to promise me!” she said, raising her voice.

“I can’t
Tracy
, it would be an empty one. I will not let my last words to you be a lie.” “Stop! You will promise me! Or I won’t go!”

I looked at her and over towards the kids who were waiting expectantly. Would a lie be so bad if it saved six others? “ Tracy , please.” I wanted her to let me off the hook.

“Listen Talbot, you stubborn bastard. I do
not
want an empty promise. I want a promise that you will not break. I have known you long enough to know that you would rather go to hell, come back, and maybe revisit one more time before you would break your damn word.
That is what I want from you, not this death march mentality I see in your eyes.” I looked away marshaling my reserves. The best part of me was leaving and she wanted me to be a better man than I was. “How?” I said so softly Tracy did not hear.

“I’m waiting,” she said, arms crossed, foot getting ready to start tapping.

“Dad,” Justin said. “Multiples coming.” Just the way in which he said it implied that this was a major battle about to take place. Saved by zombies, again! I was going to have to send them a Thank You card.

I started to turn to judge the new threat.
Tracy
grabbed my arm. “Don’t even think about it.” I coalesced the scared little boy inside of me. I drew on all the best parts of me that
Tracy saw. I reached down, figuratively not literally, and grabbed my balls. “I promise you, I will do all that is within my power to bring all of us home,” I told her with conviction.

She stepped in and pulled me close; we kissed. No further words were needed.

“Um, Mike we gotta go,”
Gary
said as he stepped away from the window.

Tracy
quickly told Justin and Travis how much she loved them and that they needed to watch out for each other and especially their dad.

I walked over to a darkened corner. Crying was a solitary endeavor for me; I did not want an audience.
Gary grabbed some gear off the table and walked over my way.

“Wanna talk about it?” he asked.

I quickly rubbed away the incriminating evidence from my cheeks. “Do I look like I want to talk about it?” I told him without looking to face him.

“Well I don’t know, that’s why I asked, and you didn’t turn around, so how would I know?” “It’s a good thing you know how to shoot,” I said as I brushed by him.

“What’s that mean?” he asked as he struggled to catch up to my quick pace.

Speeders were bearing down, we had half a minute tops to get out of here. After that it would take a major gun battle and a shitload of ammo I didn’t want to waste on these flunkies. No, this ammo was being especially saved for the queen bee and her minions.

Travis let fly some well-aimed lead. The closest zombie’s forward momentum brought his headless body skidding to a halt. Travis’ next shot ripped an arm from the elbow down clean off its victim. The zombie did not slow a beat as thick half congealed blood dropped in fat globules from the wound.

Tracy
hopped into her new Subaru hatchback after she made sure all the kids were in and secure. She gave me one long look and mouthed words to me which were unmistakable. “You promised.” Gary, Justin, Travis and I set up a small firing line to give
Tracy some safe clearance from our pursuers. Legs crumpled, heads disintegrated, blood arced, and still they came. Injuries that should have sent our attackers shrieking into the night had absolutely no effect to the throng. They trampled over their fallen without pause or hesitation, their need to feed far surpassing any other feeling they might possess. But something was happening here, wasn’t it? The mere fact that they hunted together implied some sort of cohesion, a hive mentality maybe? Could these ones also be under Eliza’s control? How far did her powers extend?

These were all higher functioning questions that I ran through as I took a breath, aimed, fired, reacquired, took a breath, aimed, fired.

“I can do this all day motherfuckers!!” I screamed. They didn’t care.

Travis and Gary were running to the far side of the truck as Justin tugged on my sleeve.

“Dad, time for a hasty retreat!” Justin yelled over my death dealing cycle.

I dropped two more before I let my self-preservation kick in.
Tracy hadn’t been gone more than three minutes and I had almost broken my promise. Yeah, this was starting off just the way I wanted it to.

‘I miss you my love, but not as much as I will,’ I thought.