by Joe McKinney
Her eyes were dead, but not dead. They peered straight ahead, and as Hemp pulled away the remainder of the bubble wrap, she struggled to turn her head, the skin now rotting from it in patches, pulling away in spots and generally drying out, some of it falling away with the plastic.
And I saw, just briefly, the beginning of the glow that many of the creatures’ eyes we’d seen had taken on. It looked almost like a chemical reaction, or some sort of mist. Then it was gone, and I wasn’t sure that I hadn’t imagined it.
Hemp hadn’t noticed it. He was busy trying to unwrap her further.
Trying to look at anything but that face, I looked down at this thing, no longer recognizable as my kid sister. I stared at the plastic only, and as the three of us tugged and pulled the rest of the wrap away, she was suddenly there on the table, fully exposed.
Her mouth opened in a silent scream, no more skin even pretending to be lips; pulled completely back, her teeth and ulcer-covered gums exposed.
Her face suddenly and inexplicably jerked directly toward Hemp and her gnashing began anew, with a manic speed and force. Her teeth ground together so hard I watched in horror as one of her front teeth shattered, and the other half just fell out and into her throat. She seemed not to notice.
Her black, swollen tongue darted around within the cavern of her mouth, and her wrists struggled beneath the restraints that held her forearms, and I could see the potential for her to pull her arms out.
There were additional wrist straps we couldn’t attach until the wrapping was gone, so I reached down quickly with my glove-clad hands and seized her right wrist, jamming it through the thick leather loop and cinching it tight around it. Gem did the same thing on the other side, and Hemp hurried around to repeat the actions on her ankles. Her head was pretty well secured, but after Hemp finished with her ankles, he pulled the head strap tighter for good measure.
I turned away then. Took three steps away from the table.
“Flex.” It was Gem’s voice. She said no more. She came up to me, pulled her gloves off, and pulled me against her. I resisted for a moment, but Gem knew me. She knew what I needed right then and it was her. With her cheek against mine, warm and comforting, I felt her breath on my neck and kept my eyes closed as she worked her soothing magic on my very soul. We stayed like that for what must have been five minutes.
Hemp was silent, giving us the time we needed. He was a good guy, and he understood. When I felt composed, I kissed Gem on the lips and touched my forehead to hers.
“Thanks, babe. I don’t know how you do that.”
“It did as much for me,” she said, smiling.
I pulled away and walked back to the table. “Okay, tell me what you see, Professor.” Gem pulled her gloves back on and stood beside me.
“Her fingernails are black, her skin is essentially rotting from its skeletal framework,” Hemp said. “It’s not the absolute norm for death, but for this level of death, it may well be. I’ve not seen any of the others this closely, and under this kind of lighting.”
“How far can this go with her still able to … live?” I asked.
“I’m not sure you can call this state alive,” Hemp answered. “I don’t see any rise and fall of the chest, indicating there is no actual pulmonary function, no breathing.”
I looked at Gem, who remained silent and solemn. “So, Hemp. She’s essentially a dead person who is starving, and driven toward the taste of human flesh.”
Hemp ignored my statement. “I feel odd leaving her like this, but I’m too tired to make any real progress with her tonight. I’d like to do some basic tests in the morning. Check some of those things we discussed earlier.”
Gem removed her gloves again, then lifted my hands and pulled mine off. “Let’s go get Trina bathed,” she said. “I think you could use some cleanup, too.”
She looked at Hemp. “Do you want to put a sheet or something over her?”
Hemp nodded. “I thought of that, and it might actually be a comfort to her rather than leaving her exposed.” He shrugged. “I have no idea. At any rate, go ahead. See you in a bit. I’ll lock this up and stand watch. When you’re finished I’ll have my shower.”
*****
Gem and I planned to shower together, right after we set up a tub for Trina. I sat in a nearby chair as Gem washed her, and the little girl practically slept through the process.
I looked on at the gentleness with which Gem washed Trina’s hair and sponged her back, and I fell more deeply in love with her right there. She would essentially be this baby girl’s mama now, and I’d be her daddy. And I was proud to have this woman by my side. I didn’t know if Jamie would ever be able to reclaim that job from Gem, but I did know that Gem would be the best mother ever.
And my mind turned to my sweet Jesse, Trina’s eight-year-old sister. I thought of her, saw her beautiful smiling face in my mind’s eye, and I fell into sobs. My body bent in half against its will, and I shuddered, tears leaking from my eyes, and I was unable to stop. I stood up quickly and left the room. I couldn’t let Trina wonder where this sadness came from.
But I cried for Trina. And Jesse. And all who would miss her, and all who would never have the chance to know her. I cried for her mother who didn’t mean to kill her little girl, and for Gem, who also loved little Jess. Her little rabbit. Well, now that rabbit would bound along the waving grasses of Watership Down for eternity.
My tears subsided, but when I felt Gem’s hand on my back, I turned and folded into her arms, and we held each other tight. I buried my face in her neck and cried with her, and no words needed to be exchanged. Everything had changed, we’d lost those we loved, and had found each other again.
“I put Trina to bed,” she said. “Hemp is standing watch while we shower.”
She stood facing me in the bathroom. I said nothing, but looked into her deep brown eyes and searched them. I did not have to look very long to see the love she felt for me.
My arms hung limp by my sides. Gem hooked her fingers beneath my tee shirt and pulled it up and over my head, then began unbuckling my belt. Just her touch aroused me in a way I couldn’t explain. After all we’d been through, our thorough exhaustion, this woman being near me was almost enough to wipe it all away.
As she opened my belt and undid the button on my jeans, lowering the zipper and dropping them down around my ankles, I reached up and began to unbutton her sheer cotton blouse. I pushed it back off her shoulders, revealing her light brown, cotton bra. I unsnapped the front hook and peeled it away.
She had begun to undo her own jeans, and slid them easily off. She put her foot on my jeans, heaped around my ankles, and I stepped out of them. I reached out for her and pulled her warm, bare body against mine, only our underwear preventing full contact top to bottom. Warm. Soft. I hadn’t felt her for so long, I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm. She looked down between us.
“Flexy, we have to free this. Too constricting.”
She turned and opened the door of the bathroom cabinet and withdrew a pair of scissors. She pulled my boxer briefs out on the side and cut slowly down with the scissors until they popped free of my leg. Then she repeated the same thing on the opposite side and they fell away.
“You don’t do anything the traditional way, do you?” I said, smiling.
“What’s the fun in that?” she said. “Now come in. You’re a dirty boy and I’m going to get you nice and clean.”
And she did. She used lather. Lots of lather.
*****
I slid on a fresh pair of jeans and walked out to check on Hemp after I recovered from my lovemaking session with Gem – the first in far too long, and an extended one at that. We fell back in bed afterward and Gem produced one of the packs of smokes that I’d grabbed from the pharmacy. We both lit one. It felt good; the stress of the past couple of days had taken its toll on both of us.
Hemp was standing, leaning against one of the porch columns, his Calico M960 hanging loosely in his hands.
“Yo
u probably want a shower and some rest,” I said, opening the screen door and walking up next to him. “I guess I’d have heard if you’d had to use that thing,” I said.
Hemp had clearly become fond of that weapon, and not just for its 50 and 100 round magazines. Because it blew the shit out of the enemy and was lightweight. Almost every fifth sentence out of Hemps mouth was how damned light it was.
“No need to shoot anything yet, and yes, about two days of sleep should do it,” he said.
“Hemp, do you have a family? Here, I mean?”
“Don’t have a family anywhere, Flex. No siblings, both parents passed away when I was just out of my teens.”
“Sorry,” I said. “But they did a good job with you. Likeable, smart. Were you ever married?”
Hemp laughed softly, but a deep sadness touched his eyes, too. “I was, my friend. I was. A beautiful woman, too. Too good for me. Married her when I was 24 and she died during childbirth. Along with my baby boy.”
“Shit,” I said, fishing a smoke from behind my ear. “I’m fuckin’ sorry I brought it up, Hemp.”
“No, she was the love of my life,” he said. “Just the time I had with her was worth all the days before them. I haven’t found anyone as good as her since, so I just . . . well, took a couple of years off, then just kind of played the field, as you Americans say.”
“There’s something to be said for that,” I said. “But I just found Gem again – rather she found me – just before we found you. I’d been with her a couple of years and it ended over a year ago. When this shit hit the fan, apparently the only person we could think about was each other.”
Hemp smiled and tossed me a pack of matches from the table beside the railing. “She’s good for you. And you’re good for her. And she’s beautiful,” he said.
I nodded. “No shit. Fuckin’ beautiful. And a heart as big as Texas.”
“I think I need someone,” Hemp said. “This world is going to seem lonely enough from this point on. I have this longing all of a sudden to find someone I can’t live without.”
“Speakin’ of that, we gotta make a plan I suppose,” I said.
Hemp nodded, scanning the yard again. “Yes, sir. Back to reality. If we’re going to be here a while, I’m going to want to pick up a couple of security camera sets and motion activated alarms and such. Battery backups, that sort of thing.”
I nodded and slid down in the Adirondack chair on my front porch and Hemp plopped down in the chair beside me.
“I don’t see a whole lot of value in hitting the road and leaving ourselves exposed. Things will likely only get worse as this thing goes along.”
“I know,” said Hemp. “The first group of people we found was frightened and cooperative. Grateful for our help. There will be others that want to take what we’ve accumulated and created. And that’s aside from the abnormals.”
We hadn’t seen any activity around the house since our arrival. That wasn’t to say the wind couldn’t shift and alert a nearby abnormal or twenty, or a hundred for that matter, with an appetite, and we could become a destination for them at any time.
“My feeling, too. I think protection is our first rule of order.”
“I’ve got some ideas for some equipment – weapons systems, I suppose. I’ll need some of Gem’s artistry skills, and since you’re an electrician, you’ll need to help with the wiring schematics for the powered machines.”
“Shouldn’t a lot of this stuff run without electricity? In case we’re in a situation where we don’t have that option?”
Hemp waved off my concern. “Absolutely. And I’ve got some ideas for crank-wound, kinetically-powered weapons systems that can either catapult or eject projectiles. Damaging projectiles.”
I laughed out loud. I suppose the sex with Gem and the shower had brightened my outlook. I think I’d place the influence both things had on my demeanor in that order, leaning heavily on the sex with Gem. At the same time – and for the same reasons – I felt like I could collapse in a blissful heap at a moment’s notice.
But it felt good to be having this conversation about our protection and our plans. Hemp’s mind must have been devising and designing the entire time he was driving, because he’d filled six pages of tightly written notes in a legal pad he’d found in the kitchen just since Gem and I went in to get wet.
“Gem’s getting some sleep now, Hemp. Why don’t you get in and get a shower and some shuteye. At least three or four hours.”
Hemp shook his head. “I won’t need that much, Flex, but thanks. My mind is racing at 150 kilometers per hour, and I can’t stop it. I’m thinking about your sister, how there’s so much I need to do with regard to her, more weapons and surveillance systems –”
“Hemp, Hemp, slow down. You’ve done a lot – a fucking shitload of stuff so far. My aunt would’ve said we couldn’t have done that in a month of Sundays, and she’d be right. So go in, have the shower, close your eyes for a while. We need that brain of yours to be fresh.”
“I don’t like the sound of that anymore, Flex.” Hemp was smiling, but the truth behind that particular joke gave me, and I’m sure him, a bit of a shudder.
“Okay, let’s say sharp,” I said.
He stood and passed me the Calico. “Okay. I’ll do it. Stay awake now, and fire that thing off if you see anything. I’ve got my MP5 to keep by my bed. Speaking of that, where am I sleeping?”
“There’s a spare bedroom, end of the hall to the left. Only a full size, but I spent money on a good mattress for when Jamie and Jack – well, it’s comfortable.”
“Got it. Thanks. I’ll go check on the pooch before I hit the shower.”
“Name’s Bunsen.”
“Bunsen?”
“Yep. After the burner. Apparently our Trina spent a tad too much time with Max when deciding what to name the girl.”
“Bunsen. Sounds like a boy name.”
“If it works for a six-year-old girl and makes her happy, I think Bunsen will do just fine.”
Hemp smiled, waved, and went inside. I propped the M960 on my leg, leaned back in the Adirondack and scanned the dark horizon for any moving shadows.
Or any flickers of eye shine.
The July night was hot and muggy, but the Georgia weather was the last thing on my mind that evening.
Chapter 11
We slept in shifts, and there were no incidents through the night. By the time 8:00 AM rolled around, we’d all had enough and felt like drinking some coffee and feeling normal for the first time in a couple of days.
The spaced-out feeling of being up for two days hadn’t completely left us, but Gem sure looked better, and Trina was chattering to Bunsen as though she were entirely human. That she was as big as a human was a fact. Pregnant, she was bigger than most.
Hemp came in through the front door and laid his gun down beside the table. “I’ll have it with two sugars,” He said, apparently assuming I’d deliver the coffee to him as he plopped down into the wood spindle-back chair. He found the remote on the table and clicked it. I had satellite, so if anyone was broadcasting at all, there might be some chance we’d get it.
But nothing showed up. Static on every channel. He clicked it off again, not wanting to waste generator fuel on nothing and took the cup of coffee I handed him.
“I’d have taken you for a tea man,” I said.
“Most tea is for pussies. American tea, that is.” He looked suddenly at Trina. “I’m sorry, young lady. That was rude of me.”
“What’s a pussy?” Trina asked, her eyes curious.
Gem stepped around the table and sat beside her. “It’s a bad word for someone who’s not brave,” she said.
“Well put,” I said.
She turned her head quickly toward Hemp and gave him that little girl’s you said a bad word face.
He nodded and patted the top of her head. “I only meant that Earl Grey is about the only tea you can find here that a real man would drink. Trina, do I need to put a quarter in som
e jar somewhere?”
“Not this time,” Trina said. “I didn’t know that one. But I will next time,” she added matter-of-factly.
“So what’s the plan? We feel good enough that we don’t need a lookout right now?” Gem glanced back and forth between me and Hemp.
“Gun’s right here,” Hemp said.
I patted mine, leaning against the kitchen island. “Mine, too.”
Gem tossed her head toward the sofa where her Uzi rested. “Okay, I guess we can beat a few zomb – abnormals – to the punch.”
“Regardless, the plan is to hit a Radio Shack or a Best Buy and see if we can get the camera systems we need,” Hemp said. “I’d also like to set up some snares in the woods around here.”
“Snares?”
Hemp nodded. “I know it seems kind of archaic, but there are woods on three sides of this property, as Flex knows, and that makes it fairly simple for someone who’s driven to get very close to this house without being seen.”
“But snares?” Gem wrinkled her nose at me as she took a deep sip from her hot coffee. Her expression quickly turned into one of utter bliss. She did love her coffee.
“I was up early, and with my trusty MP5 by my side, I took a walk along the woods line. There are clear paths where animals make their way, and these are the same paths that anything or anybody else will make their way.”
“So booby-trap the obvious paths,” Gem said. “And what about the poor animals?”
I sat down next to Gem at the table.
Hemp shrugged. “We’ll need meat, Gem. Flex, what kind of animals you got in these woods anyway?”
“Oh, shit, that’s right,” Gem said, then slapped her hand over her mouth and smiled as Trina glared at her.
“A few bears, not too many. “Deer, some feral pigs. I guess a zombie or two.”
“So you can joke about it but we have to call them abnormals? Great.” Gem shook her head and swatted my arm, causing me to spill my coffee onto the table.
I shrugged. “I don’t care anymore. What they are they are. What they are, Jamie is. After seeing her last night, I don’t know how to balance terminology versus fear versus hatred versus survival instinct. I love her, but that is not her. Not anymore.”
