by Evans, Mike
Earl shrugged, “Seemed like I wouldn’t be out anything if there wasn’t none.”
Clary realized that giving him a tank lesson and sending him on his way might just be the best thing in the world for his own sanity. He didn’t have the patience to deal with this guy on a regular basis. “Well, there won’t be any cake today so if you’d like to try your chances elsewhere, we can wait while you leave.”
Earl sat down and kicked his feet up and smiled, “Nope, I ain’t been here long enough to know what else to go do with myself. I figure since I’m one of the geniuses that designed this working thing, that I guess it ought to be me who stays here and helps ya’ll think ‘bout how we can take care of this shit.”
“Geniuses, you know, Earl, you pretty much took the words right out of my mouth.”
Scott, knowing that this could continue for the entire day, intervened asking, “So, we’ve been using Earl's gun to deploy the drug recently. Our fear originally was that those who hadn’t had the shot that Mark came up with was that the innocent would die.”
“I can see how that is a concern. I don’t see a lot of people out and about in the street though,” Clary said.
“Right, but if we are going to do this on any type of scale, I feel like it is imperative that we are able to account for that,” Scott replied.
Mark held up a hand and said, “I have a second batch of it that we can test out. This one doesn’t need any inoculations before using it. It would really excel what options that we have available to us. The more we are able to use it, the more that we are going to accomplish.”
“Wait, so we don’t need them there shots all the time like before, do you know how much them hurt?”
Mark ignored the whining coming from Earl, confident if he indulged him that it would only get worse. Clary impatiently asked, “So when are we going to be able to give this second batch a trial?”
“When did you want to go? I’ve already had it around me.”
“What does that mean?”
“I took it as a good sign being that if the original formula had been around us, we probably would have died.”
Clary leaned forward, there was no joke in his face, nothing to make anyone better. He whispered, trying to keep his voice even and unemotional. “You were out in Chicago shooting that shit off when you obviously had no clue whether or not there was any living in that building. What the hell were you thinking?”
Earl leaned forward before Mark was able to say anything and said, “No, he wasn’t out shooting nothing off. That was me and Big Joe, see he calls me Big Earl, seeing how we are pals and what not. We are gonna be in history books if they ever go and write another one. Damn, that’d be my luck, we go and save the world and there ain’t nobody out and about to make our damn story. See what”
Clary reached a hand out just as fast as he could. Earl didn’t have time to even flinch. Earl’s smile diminished immediately when Clary’s hand wrapped around his throat. He squeezed until Earl croaked and started pulling at Clary’s hand which wasn’t going anywhere unless he chose to. Clary said, “If the two of you, I mean if the entire group of you can’t make intelligent decisions then you will not be staying here. I don’t care if you can kill all of them, those that made it this long should be absolutely not endangered, or what’s the point of it?”
Mark tried to pull down on his hand as well but there wasn’t anything removing it until he opened it short of cutting the hand off. Mark said, “Okay, okay, we are sorry, it isn’t like we knew any of this was going to happen. Do you think that I wanted to end up in Iowa, where the entire crazy outbreak happened first? No, of course not,” Earl gripped Mark around the nose making sure that he had his attention fully. Mark nodded continuing with, “Earl is mentioning nothing like that will ever happen again. Not seeing how that is quite so important since we already said that we’ve fixed that problem.”
Clary released Earl and the air burned his lungs as he inhaled and it rushed to fill. Earl gasped once before trying to take another breath. Once he was breathing the way he wanted he said, “All right, so you trying to tell me if you were in a strange town with stranger people and you came up with the virus killer that everyone in the whole, excuse my El Frencho, the entire fucking world could use to make the world whole again. That you wouldn’t have a hard on the size of an elephant to go out and try and kill some of them fuckers?”
Clary sat back, folding his hands on his barrel stomach, and calmed himself. The vision burning itself into the back of his mind was Shaun clasping at his throat and choking to death and there wouldn’t be a damn thing that any of them would have been able to do. “No, I would have done it differently, to have gone to the outskirts of town where there might not be one of almost three million people that could still be alive! Is there a reason you had to do it in downtown Chicago?”
Earl looked straight to Mark like it was completely his fault. “Why didn’t ya’ll send us on a day trip, shoot, I never thought of going out and testing it way out there.”
Mark looked to Earl and the group watched as Mark’s shoulders deflated and he shrugged. “The big win long-term seemed more important than anything else would have been at the moment. I assure you that from the CDC building we didn’t see any people running around who weren’t out for blood.”
“If you want to do that shit around here, there are going to be protocols put in place before we do anything. Maybe that is something that we want to start here today. Especially if you are ready to try this stuff out.”
Scott said, “We can be as careful as possible, I’m sure there won’t be any issues with helping us find a specimen or two that we are able to try and test it on, right?”
Clary shook his head no and said, “We make sure that it is a safe place we go to. We don’t test anything new out going forward without discussing it first, and we make sure, damn sure, that we aren’t doing anything stupid. Does that about sum it up?”
Scott reached a hand out shaking it like that would cement what they were saying. He didn’t know Clary or that trust was earned, not just handed out. But Clary shook it anyways. Shaun cleared his throat and asked, “How much of that stuff do you have, Mark?”
Mark looked to be visibly doing calculations in his head. “There’s enough that we could shoot off at least five hundred rounds. Like anything it is going to need to be refilled and there’ll be more of it needed of course to continue making our way further.”
“How hard is this stuff to come by? I mean how long will it take you to make more, to make enough to keep us supplied for a helluva long time?” Clary questioned.
“Well, we aren’t going to be able to gather most of these things at the local Wal-Mart, unfortunately, but there are going to be places I’m sure that will have plenty of this to make what we need.”
“You don’t think that we are going to have it on a military base?” Clary asked.
“No, probably not. We need to go somewhere that is interested in saving lives, opposed to the latter.”
Clary didn’t want to get into a debate over the military and their purpose. It seemed like a moot point at this time in the world’s current situation. “Look, I don’t know what is in it, but if you make a list or have some idea where you can get what you need then we will be good to go and can move from there.”
Mark pushed a list over towards Clary and it was not short. Clary said, “Christ, is this really everything that you put into that little powder?”
“Sir, if it was easy then someone would have figured it out by now. I don’t know if there is a CDC center here or a college campus, possibly. I’m sure you’ve got colleges here right?”
Ellie said, “Well we have to walk by foot of course on gravel roads to get to college, thank god they take our pa’s corn harvest as trade for our schoolin’.”
“Okay, okay,” Mark held up his hands in defeat, this round table wasn’t going well for him and he wasn’t sure how to continue with such a wonderful foot in his mouth. �
��What college is closest?”
Shaun thought about Iowa State in Ames but going a half hour back then would have to be hours travelling now, easily. “Drake College has to be the closest, but there are some community colleges we could check on the way. I really don’t know much about what they have for classes offered though. I’d think they are going to have some of what you need but I don’t know.”
Earl held up a hand. No one was interested in what he’d like to know but when he started to look as if he might crap himself if his questions weren’t answered Clary nodded towards him. “Sorry, this might not be protein to the situation but I gotta ask something.”
“What is it, Earl, did you have a college that you’d recommend?” Clary asked.
“No, I’m sure the ones that Shaun over there suggested would be right fine.”
Clary took a deep breath and he wasn’t sure what the hell he was going to do with this man. “Right, then what do you need?”
“Well, it’s just that my grandpa was a farmer, you see. I asked him to help me pay for college once. He told me to go into the army and that they would pay for it if I was smart enough to get in.”
“And?” Clary asked.
“Well hell, I mean, I learned more ‘bout guns than I could ever forget. But if I could’ve skipped all that and just went right into college then I could’ve skipped getting thrown out of a plane back during basic.”
“Earl, I’m lost, but I fear if you keep explaining that I might have my hand around your neck again.”
“I was just saying my grand pappy could’ve just went and plowed the east field a couple of years if they would’ve taken trade. Hell, it would’ve been just fine if I’d have gone to good ol’ DMACC even and gotten me a mechanic degree or something, you know what I mean?”
Clary took his ball cap off and set it on the table and rubbed his hands through his dark, thick hair. He took a long drink of coffee and looked to Ellie who was shaking her head and hiding what was going to very quickly become an infectious laugh. He said as cool and collectively as he could, “We are going to try two groups; anyone have any problems with that?”
Shaun raised his hand but Ellie couldn’t help herself. “Uh, yeah, I got a problem with that. Every time that we split up, we go off on our own, the worse things that can happen, do. We don’t have the numbers to try and do this right now.”
“We don’t have the numbers? Christ, how many people did we have when we took this base over? What are we going to do to see how long it would take? We’ve already wasted enough time trying to figure out how to get rid of them when we could,” Clary yelled as he slammed a hand down onto the table.
“We’re going on two years right now. What difference does it make if it takes a few extra hours? We didn’t have much luck with the time that we’ve spent in Des Moines and Ankeny,” Ellie said trying to use some reason.
“Yeah, and we were in Ankeny looking for your dumbasses in a snowstorm. You remember that, right? Or, maybe you don’t, given the fact that you ended up in a coma, you remember that, right? That day didn’t go to well, we lost Shelman, Phillip…”
“I get it. You don’t need to be a dick.”
“I just didn’t want to waste any more time.”
“Maybe by taking our time, we will save more time in the long run, no reason countin’ apples on a tree until you get one down and make sure they’re good tasting apples see. Sometimes you get a shit tree. But you get yourself a good tree and then you can go making pie, and jams, and all kinds of things that are just absolutely delicious. At least that’s what I always say,” Earl said.
Clary hated admitting to being wrong. He truly despised that Earl just made an intelligent statement, in whatever weird redneck language that he seemed to be so fluent in. “Fine, we go together. Why don’t we do it right? We can go test your new formula and make sure it works. If it is successful, then we all go together and we bring back enough of everything so that Mark there is going to be quite busy for quite a long damn time. I think we’ll need to figure out something quicker to release the drug, especially if it won’t be harmful to the living.”
“Did you have something in mind?” Scott questioned.
“Honestly, no I don’t, but long term, I think you’ll need a dispensing system that can handle more space. You guys are shooting fish in a barrel. We've got three hundred million or more of these things to deal with.”
“That isn’t the population of Iowa, that is the entire continent’s population,” Scott replied.
Clary smiled, and it was somewhat creepy as there was nothing but bad intentions in his eyes, “If you can make the quantity we need, why can’t we take out all of them? Why couldn’t we at least lock down the state and then begin working our way out from there. It might take the rest of my goddamn life, but who knows how many people are still alive!”
“What if the new formula doesn’t work?” Shaun asked.
Clary set a pistol on the table, “This is what we used in the beginning and it worked just fine. We go back to what we were using today if their solution doesn’t work. Earl, how many of those guns do you have made up?”
“How many of them? Are we counting the one that I used in Chicago?”
“Sure,” Clary replied.
“We got one. It took all the materials we had to get that one working, and then after our small snafu we had to go and fix it, and when I say we, I mean me. These guys are great with the science-y shit but don’t know shit about propulsion systems.”
“After we use the one you came with, we can start figuring out something not better, but something a little more reliable.”
Earl folded his arms, leaning back in his seat and looking offended, “You know you might not knock it until you try it, Clary.”
The door to the room busted open, making everyone jump. Joey fell through the door with Greg standing behind him shaking his head. “I love the kid, but I swear he needs to work on being discreet. I’m in on testing that new stuff out. I want to watch those things choke and die as bad as anyone here!”
Joey got up off the floor and his face was three shades of red. “Greg said that we might be able to get something good to eat when he saw all of you walking into the building. I kind of think he was full of crap now though.”
“I haven’t made any mistakes in a long time. There’s no reason we can’t be a part of this,” Greg replied.
“Unless the new formula doesn’t work, Greg,” Clary responded.
“Right, but if we go and it doesn’t work then why don’t we just plan on taking the tank or the trucks with the fifty caliber rifles mounted on top of it? Come on, I’m dying to get out of here for a while. There aren’t many, if any, better than me with the fifty.”
“Will it shut you up, Greg, if you can go with us? The test doesn’t need to be everyone, just a few of us.”
Greg did the sign of the cross, “You and I can go check it out.”
Shaun said, “I want to go.”
Earl raised a hand and said, “I know how to use it, so I’m going, there ain’t no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Now why don’t we quit sitting around screwing off and go see what this shit can do.”
Clary said, “Oh good, Earl, I was hoping we could spend the day together.”
Earl clapped his hands together; sarcasm was wasted words on Earl. “You know, I thought for sure you didn’t like me at first, Clary, especially this morning with you going and wrapping that giant hand around my neck. My good buddy, Frank, he’s always tellin’ me how I can’t read people and then you prove him right again. I’ll have to tell him ‘bout this zombie adventure when I make my way up to Canada.”
Clary didn’t say anything for a moment, “Scott, Shaun, Greg, and the infamous Earl.”
Mark said, “You sure you need to take the children with?”
Greg, who couldn’t help himself at times, one of the lesser benefits of being a teenage boy with a million different hormones and emotions racing through his body at any
given time added, “You realize we are almost two years into this zombie apocalypse, right? Unlike you, we didn’t survive this long by hiding. We’ve fought, and we’ve gone after them on purpose. That guy there has trained us since day two, and day one wasn’t a fucking walk in the park either, excuse my French.”
“Right then, I’m going to go work on something that…doesn’t involve me talking to any living people. Scott, I assume you are going to go with? Why don’t you let me know what you think of the new mix once you get a shot at it? Greg, I couldn’t be happier for you to be alive.”
Joey looked at Greg while he said everything, “I’m fine staying here, Mr. Clary, only crazy people wanna go out and try and find zombies. I got no problems with smashing zombies with the bat that Mr. Clary made, but I don’t go out of my way to find them.”
“No one ever said that Greg was one of the smart ones. You hang out here, Joey, and just stay out of trouble. Would that be too much to ask, maybe check on everyone?”
