Genesis Virus

by Pinto, Daniel

  Delilah says. “Spit it out already.”

  “I forgot.” David grins and says. “You know what I really miss, I miss music, because it makes everything more dramatic and breathes life into the mundane.”

  He gets up. “Imagine some music while I do this.” He karate chops the air and kicks imaginary zombies, a laughing Lou spits out some liquor. “Bruce Lee, sit your drunk ass down.” Delilah laughs too and claps her hands. “Get ‘em, there’s one behind you.” David turns and punches.

  Ava stands up only to shove David back down by his shoulder. “You know, I can play the guitar, if anyone ever finds one. I’ll play you something if you ask nicely or pay me.”

  David blinks trying to see her even though she’s standing next to him. “You never told me you could play.”

  Ava says. “You never asked.”

  Lou says to Youngblood. “Look at that dumb look on his face.”

  David smiles at everyone and says to Ava. “You’re just full of surprises, but I bet you can’t do this.”

  David takes a gulp from the liquor bottle and gazes over at Ava’s sparking blue eyes and brownish hair, she’s sitting and staring into the flames, with her pensive mind far from the camp. He kisses her on the cheek with food and liquor all over his lips. She tries to get him off her frowning face, the men cheer. David lets her go and she wipes her cheek as she looks at his amused face and tilting head.

  David says to her. “I’m loving the new hairdo by the way. It frames your face perfectly.” He tries to touch the ends of her hair. “Let’s give Abigail a cousin.”

  Ava pulls away. “For fuck sake, give me a break.”

  Delilah pumps her fist. “Maybe you should give her some, David, so she can lighten up.”

  David says. “She knows where I live, she’s welcome anytime.” He falls to his back and laughs, with his hand holding up the bottle of whisky up in the air. Lou walks over to him and says. “Give me that, you giggling fool.”

  Ava says. “If the dead come, I’m leaving him.”

  Time goes by.

  A sober-ish David stands up and feels the need to address everyone. “I’m done for today, I’ll see you all tomorrow and to all a good night…don’t worry about me.”

  Lou’s mending the dying fire back to life. David walks backwards to his homemade small tent, which is down the way from the bacchanal crowd.

  The group says, “good, more for us,” and they continue to eat and drink.

  Ava says to everyone. “I’ll take watch tonight.”

  Lou says to her. “You don’t need to, we’re fine.”

  Ava says. “It couldn’t hurt.”

  Delilah says. “I can help you, Ava.” The guys get quiet watching on.

  Ava says. “No thanks.” The guys let out a puff and Delilah resumes eating, shrugging it off.

  On his way home, David spots a forlorn zombie stumbling towards the outskirts of the perimeter of positioned zombies, he says to himself. “No one do anything.”

  He waves his torch at it. The zombie’s pupils enlarge because of the radiance of the torch. David stabs the torch into the zombie’s face, kicks it, and then strolls back to his friends to humble-brag about it.

  The group is composed around the campfire chatting, and not paying attention to David. He continues to walk leisurely back, but suddenly feels his neck get warmer and spins around as the zombie with a scorched face and a insatiable rage lurches at him. David eludes it and drops down to his back. Becoming a bad habit for him.

  The next thing he sees is a stick from behind the zombie, impaling its throat, then the stick is driven up to detach a part of the zombie’s head into the blackness. Delilah treads from out of the shadows to help David up.

  David says. “Thanks.” Delilah picks up the torch and hands it back to him, he says. “I’ve had enough silliness for one night, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Delilah says. “Ok, this outta sober you up real quick, I bet.”

  David glances at the burnt leftovers of the zombie for a flash then looks at Delilah and says. “Lets make a deal, we will watch each other’s back no matter what.” Delilah smiles and extends her hand to shake. He inspects it and switches the torch to his left hand and says. “People still do that?” Imitating her voice when he rescued her. He shakes her hand, and saunters away to his tent.

  Delilah says. “I can walk you home, it’s a bad neighborhood.”

  David waves his hand back in a I got this bravado manner.

  4

  Days later, night time again.

  Earlier, David found a tent nearby in the woods with random belongings, one item was a black guitar case, and he has decided to open it just now and head to the group.

  He gets odd looks in the crowd. David wraps both hands around the neck of the guitar and raises the guitar over his head like he’s in a rock band. “We don’t need this.” Ava sits up a little and repeatedly scoops her hand to herself, signaling to give it over. “Nuh-uh. Do it and I’ll kill you.”

  David hands her the guitar acting dumb, says. “I didn’t know you played.”

  Ava’s thumb and forefinger are about to touch, she says. “Just a little bit.” She accepts the stolen property.

  The Chief says. “The best guitar player is Phillip Johnson the man who sold his soul to the Devil for success.”

  Coop says. “These young people don’t know good music.”

  Delilah says. “Said by every old person…I love you Coop.”

  Ava drums on the guitar, bouncing her head to a beat only known to her and says. “Fuck it. I won’t let these things take music too…I suggest you all get lost I’m a big girl.” Music wakes up the dead and the dead inside. She tunes the guitar and slides her fingers across the strings in one motion like a passing hand on piano keys. David interlocks his fingers behind his head, lies in the grass, and closes his eyes. “Let them come. I’m too tired to give a shit.”

  Cooper offers Lou a drink from his milk jug filled with water, but Lou continues to rummage through his bags, then spins a liquor bottle in his hand with childlike glee, and sings out. “My friend.”

  David opens one eye and says at the sound of Lou twisting the top off the bottle. “My faith in humanity has just been restored.”

  Ava strums one string; it sharply vibrates and reverberates off the endless trees stalking the fire. All the nightlife silences as if commanded by her authority, a conductor for Mother Nature. There’s only a bubble of life; the rest is a sea of darkness ready to swallow up any light.

  The Chief and Cooper remain standing behind Ava like her security detail. She shoves her sleeves up and takes a deep breath, looking self-conscious for a second for the first time. The vulnerability and fear cocktail of public speaking mixed with expressing one’s creativity.

  Ava slowly lowers her head, shuts eyes, and lets out a low raspy voice on the brink of sadness. The melody is tranquil and intimate, yet inviting. David opens the other eye and bobs his head without realizing; taken aback, Lou and Youngblood look at each other wondering who’s speaking. The Chief leans against the tree with one arm and smiles at the ground.

  Ava sits on a wide trunk of wood and her new black and orange guitar rests on her knee. Brown hair hides her face and the anonymous voice is the only sound for miles. She’s in her personal Acropolis theater. Ava’s voice rumbles and comes out with a tinge of drowsiness.

  Man’s on the loose.

  Low odds and high stakes.

  You run around with nothing to lose.

  Your home is regrets and mistakes.

  This ain’t no place for the dreary kind.

  You used to call all the shots.

  Now you cry and hide.

  And there’s no end in sight.

  So close your eyes and take the ride.

  This ain’t no place for the dreary kind.

  This ain’t no place to lose oneself.

  This ain’t no place to be left behind.

  Give it one more try- there’s no he
lp, but yourself.

  Your body aches.

  And life is to blame.

  Too much hate and fears.

  Each day feels the same.

  This ain’t no place for the dreary kind.

  A knife in your heart.

  And nothing left to dull the pain.

  Many lonely days that fall apart.

  Just ignore crazy heart and try to remain sane.

  This ain’t no place for the dreary kind.

  This ain’t no place to lose oneself.

  This ain’t no place to be left behind.

  Give it one more try- there’s no help, but yourself.

  This ain’t no place to lose your damn mind.

  This ain’t no place for the dreary kind.

  Ava lets the ring of the last note marinate for a moment. Opens her eyes and squat-walks with the guitar on her lap. She snatches the liquor bottle from Lou mid-drink. She says. “I need it more.” Everyone enjoys the silence.

  5

  Later on that night.

  David warbles and hums Ava’s song to himself in the middle of the night. “This ain’t no place for the dreary kind. Because you’ll get your ass eaten alive. This ain’t no placccceeee for the drearrry kind. Because you’ll get your assssss eaten aliveeeeee…Ignore crazy heart and give it one more try.” He relishes in singing off-key.

  David takes another swallow of the hard liquor. He waves a small torch to look at his another hand, inspects the bottle in genuine confusion with beady eyes. “Where am I? I think I’m sleep drinking.”

  He sees someone in front of him with the same body language and movement. As if he’s looking into a mirror. He stumbles forward like a toddler to see their face closer. “Hey Lou.”

  David smashes his toes on a dead body on the ground that he set there earlier. His twin shadow looks down at him and goes for his juggler as David tries to gets up. The smell wakes him up, as if it’s a smelling salt used to revive the unconscious.

  David wantonly spits the sip of liquor as he moves the torch in between him and the zombie. The ball of flames comes out like a circus performer and it consumes the zombie’s face.

  “Not again.” David reaches down in the darkness, grabs the nearest stick and beats the fire out from the flaming head and lastly crushes the face like a concerned smoker stomping out the head of their cigarette on the pavement. David scrapes his boots on rocks. “You smell like a bag of flaming shit…What do you have against us?...I bet you were some kid’s deadbeat dad who didn’t give a shit and now I have to take care of your kid for you, alive or dead.” He hiccups. “Hell, I have to try to take care of everyone’s kids…Sometimes I wish I could be you, but I’m too pretty for suicide.” David continually kicks the body feeling a rush of pleasure. It does not budge.

  David lowers his head and goes to sleep, sitting on the ground next to the dead man. “This ain’t no place for the dreary kind…”

  In the morning, Ava kicks David in the side. “Are you, you?”

  David slowly opens his eyes, lifts one arm. “Raaaaaaaa.” Ava rolls her eyes and walks away.

  6

  Another hard day, another night.

  David wakes up in the dark and reaches for his flashlight, hearing the cracking of twigs, which he threw around his tent earlier as a last security measure. There it goes again. “This is getting old.” He puts his belt on without going through the loops with the irritability of having to take out the trash in bed weather.

  Below the pale moonlight, David first gazes up at the stars as he exits his tent, before he engages in a midnight patrol. He makes a torch and puts his small flashlight in his back pocket. The one good thing to come from Dead Town.

  David has his hand in front, leading him, walking around in the dark, he steps farther into the nocturnal woods until a flash of lightening appears on his hand, stopping him completely, and his heart skips a beat. David puts on the ski mask to keep warm. The one good thing from meeting Delilah.

  A voice says. “You have insomnia too?”

  He gets startled and quickly punches at Delilah’s face, missing it in the dark, he then moves the torch to find her.

  David says. “Are you stalking me?” Relieved to have missed. A woman beater is not as bad as a woman rapist, but it’s up there.

  Delilah says. “Get over yourself.”

  “I’m just saying…well goodnight.” David leaves her. Delilah stops him by saying. “How did you get involve with these people?”

  Don’t she know all this already? “Circumstances. How did those men get you?”

  She says. “Crazier circumstances.”

  Delilah motions David to give her the torch. “Shut up and hand it over.”

  He says. “Wow, being a gentleman nowadays can get you killed. I’m blind out here.”

  She says. “You’re just going to have to trust me out here.”

  She has a handgun in her other hand and walks beside David farther away from camp. “Hurry up, ugly.” A subtle charisma that puts his mind at ease.

  David follows her, talking to the back of her head. “You know when the world was ending people were so quick to grab weapons, but they forgot to grab soap to clean their asses, so that’s the first item I looked for when I scavenged, I’m not going to die of a dirty ass. She smiles revealing her dimple cheeks. “Me too, I grabbed medicine and dental products, people didn’t think about life between the dangerous moments, not too many long-term thinkers out here.”

  Delilah slows down to walk by his side and then slightly bumps him in his shoulder on purpose. “This is so romantic, candle light under the moon and stars, with flesh eating monsters walking around us.”

  David grins and leads the way with his flashlight. “Tonight, it’s easier to see the constellations.”

  She says. “There’s the Gemini.”

  He ducks under the archways of trees, enjoying the long bout of silence, the world disappears and he’s in walking meditation with his bodyguard, letting her worry about the dead as he’s living in his head.

  Next thing she does is pass him and walk backwards, David’s forced to focus on her.

  Delilah says. “Do you believe in God?”

  David says. “I’ll say this, if God show’s his face I won’t fight the truth.”

  Delilah says. “You sound like an idiot.”

  David laughs and says. “I know you answer. Why does mine matter? It has no effect on your beliefs.”

  Delilah says. “It’s a ice breaker.”

  David says. “More like an iceberg. Pray for me, it couldn’t hurt.”

  Delilah says. “I got it the first time, you don’t have to remind me you’re an asshole.”

  David says. “An asshole with a soft side.”

  Delilah stops and has an apologetic frown. “That sounded gross.”

  David stops and smiles. “Yeah, you’re right. Wasn’t thinking.”

  Delilah turns and walks by his side. “What’s the deal with you and Ava?”

  David holds a branch up. “We’re friends with no benefits.”

  She says. “Be serious,” he smiles in the shadow of her flames, as she gets water out of her pack. “Ava’s so intense and you’re so carefree. Well, as much as one can be out here.”

  David asks for the water. “So that’s how you see me, carefree, wow I would have guessed dashing.” He rubs his arms, then the back of his neck.

  Delilah says. “You know people’s perception of themselves is hardly a perfect match with how others close to them would describe them to strangers.”

  He says. “All this and brains too?” Delilah’s pupils are large and brilliant as he passes a light over her face.

  He doesn’t realize Delilah’s holding his hand. “How would you describe me, David?”

  David stares at her for a second until she says. “Hurry up.”

  He says. “Fine, I would say you are a loner, aggressive, and a heartbreaker.”

  She says. “Be serious.”

  David s
ays. “I was, that was my first impression of you.”

  She says. “And now.”

  David says. “I don’t know or care, first impressions are overrated, they’re just another excuse for people not to like you.”

  They walk for a while on a new path.

  Delilah stops and brings her torch up to inspect a tree with claw marks. “Why are you doing all of this?”

  David rubs his chin. “Trying to save Phillip, my friend and Ava’s family.”

  Delilah says. “Phillip’s her dad?”

  David says. “Her brother-in-law. My old group saved both of them years ago.”

  Delilah says. “So, he’s the guy responsible for us meeting?”

  David looks up at the stars. “Yes, funny how things work…truth be told I still feel so much guilt for not telling my group to kill our hostage Paul. If I would have, maybe they would all still be here. I will die with this guilt…”

  Delilah says. “Then I would have died and countless others because of the Engineer, take solace in that.”

  “No good feeling has ever come from killing.”

  Delilah finally asks him what has been bugging her. “What were you and Ava arguing about in Dead Town?”

  David says. “So, all the other questions were just leading up to this one. Foreplay.”

  “Maybe.”

  He says. “Many things, then we discussed if we should kill you or not.”

  Delilah stops walking and has a scared look on her face.

  David says. “Relax, Ava was just saying we should leave you behind at Dead Town, for yours and our safety.”

  “I can’t believe anything you say. Be real.”

  “I don’t know how to be any other way.” David takes a deep breath as if he’s in high altitude. “Okay, you were the first and last person I told about my suicide attempt…I had a weight on my chest the days following that moment until I met you and stopped you from doing it yourself…In a way I was talking to myself when I stopped you. The world would have two less people if I pulled that trigger and now I have to pull it to save a few more people…If you ever get that feeling on your chest and you want to talk I’m here to listen. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m willing to listen.”