by catt dahman
Stevie looked okay with having her hand held.
One of the men and a woman made a run outside and contributed to the dinner. They had a lot of cans of ravioli that they fixed with canned Parmesan cheese and spices, and Cory and the rest ate until they were stuffed. They added green beans, canned but spiced to taste delicious, and a big salad with dressing. For dessert, they melted caramel over apple slices over a fire. Even Stevie rallied to enjoy the big dinner.
“I lost my people,” Cal said. “I ministered to them, and they died; it’s hard for me to understand why I’m still here.”
A while back, he had his own home over-run, but very good, very brave people had loaded them up, taught them to fight hard, and had brought them to the zoo where most animals were dead, but some remained. He had joined with the group and had a strong, formidable settlement that took many in and helped hundreds.
“You have a role, Cal,” Robert said, “just like I do. We may not know our roles, but we have ‘em the same, and we are not to ask why or what but to serve. That’s what makes us human, not those things and not bandits or trash like that Colonel Cox, either.”
“That’s nice. Where did you learn it, Robert?” Cory asked.
“From Cal,” Robert and Cal chuckled.
Dale and Robert told Cory they would help, then go back to Port A with them, get people to go into Fort Sill, and get Hannah and the rest out.
However, in the morning after a recon mission, two of the men came back with bad news. They had tracked the Army who had Hannah and had found bodies on the side of the road. Bella and Ponce were dead and tossed aside like trash.
Stevie cried again, worried about her sister and sad about Bella and Ponce. Then, she remembered Lexie on the porch, dead, knew she was still there, rotting and picked at by animals, and cried even harder. With humans an endangered species, why did they kill one another?
Robert and Dale were furious about the senseless killing.
Cory gulped hard.
“Bella, ” Dale said, looking at Robert and Cory. “We were a great team; she was a good girl.” She had fought with him and been his friend since the outbreak had started when he had been without a plan or hope.
“Jet was gonna marry her, Cory,” Stevie said. “They had no reason to kill her or anyone.”
“Let’s get healed a little and supplied up, and then we are out of here, Stevie.
We’ll get Len and your Mama and Daddy, we’ll find Hannah, and we’ll find Cox and the rest, and I swear, we’ll make them scream,” Cory said as he shook with anger. “Colonel Cox will pay for this, Baby Girl.”
Robert patted his friend. “Shhhh, we’ll make it right. One step at a time.”
“We have plenty of supplies for a while, but we have fresh fish in the aquarium and can eat them; we sure as hell can’t keep them fed and taken care of, so we might as well eat them; fish would be good for us.”
Tom, Cal, and the other man Quint made a run to the aquarium to look it over and decide how best to get the fish. Cal slammed the door, and they were in a small room for employees with one side of the room formed of glass. Tom pointed out several fish that would be good grilled. “They will cook up nice and crisp along the edges, good eating.”
“He looks mean.” Cal watched a tiger shark circling the tank. “Of things to survive the zombies, a shark.”
“Oh, hey.” Quint saw movement in the shadows beside the tank. A shambler rose to his feet and moaned at the three men. Quint raised his rifle and shot twice.
The first shot blasted brains and blood across the glass of the tank in strange patterns, but the second shot hit the glass.
“Oh,” Cal whispered.
The glass cracked, lines running across the face of the tank to the walls. For a second, nothing else happened, and the men got ready to run out of the room.
But the water pressure surged, the cracks split open, and as water began to pour into the room, the force behind it grew, and more glass fell to the floor as the water gushed out. When a six-foot section broke, the little room filled with seawater, and fish were pushed out of the tank.
The three men had to tread the deep water; fish and silt filled the room rapidly.
They only had to open the door to the outside, and then the water would be gone, and the fish would be there to pick up, take to the cabin, and grill.
But instead before they could, the tiger shark, hungry, clamped down on Tom’s leg and shook it, ripping it loose. Blood stained the water red.
Cal grabbed Tom while Quint beat at the big fish with his rifle. The force of the water pouring in had banged Quint against the wall and put a lump on the back of his head.
Tom, missing his leg from the thigh down, screamed, and gulped salt water, his eyes huge. In a few seconds, he slipped away from Cal and went under, dying of rapid blood loss.
“Open the door,” Cal yelled.
Quint still slammed the water with his gun, trying to hit the shark as it darted around him in circles. The other two tiger sharks, smelling blood, swam close to the men who flailed.
Quint’s screams were high-pitched as the shark latched on to him around his waist; the force of the bite was equal to thousands of pounds of pressure, concentrated into razor-sharp rows of teeth. Quint’s ribs were broken at once, and his flesh was shredded as the fish took him under to rip off parts of the man to eat.
He drowned as he bled out.
Cal couldn’t see anything but thrashing and red water all around him. In his confusion, he swam toward the tank instead of to the door. Praying loudly, he tried to find safety, but as he swam, he drifted into the broken glass of the tank wall.
At the first cut, a huge gash showed along his leg, he panicked and threw himself backwards into the knife-like shards that remained. One broke off in his back. His hands opened up with cuts as he tried to feel his way around.
He was drowsy, bleeding badly, and barely treading water when the first shark brushed past him, its skin like sandpaper that rubbed skin off Cal’s arms.
On the second pass, the fish bit Cal’s shoulder. He was unconscious and drowning when the shark finally bit into his arm and ripped it away.
Wondering what was taking them so long, Dale and Mary went to check, killing three zombies along the way.
Dale opened the door to the room, curious as to why a little water had seeped out the bottom of the doorway, making the ground muddy. He sloshed.
Half the tank had emptied out the crack under the door, but there was enough water so when Dale opened the door, three partially eaten bodies, a zombie, three tiger sharks, and a lot of other marine life and plants washed out, knocking him to the ground.
Mary slammed her rifle down on one shark and then shot it in the head. Dale got to his feet, and the pair backpedaled quickly to look at the results of their search.
“My, God,” was all Mary could say as she looked at the fish and bodies. “They ate them.”
“Let’s go; I don’t want any damned fish,” Dale said, his face pale.
It wasn’t zombies, but sharks who had killed their friends.
But it was always about teeth. Biting teeth.
5
The Dead
Cory didn’t understand exactly what they told him about the three men who died when they went to get fish for dinner. How the sharks had gotten out of their tank and into the room with the men or how the zombie fit in eluded Cory although everyone had plenty of guesses and tried to think of really what had happened.
Len always said to figure out the story and learn something, but all Cory could get from this was three men went to get fish, and the fish got them. How it had happened, he didn’t know, but it was a reminder that sharks were always dangerous. Cory felt bad for everyone.
Dale and Robert took the loss of Cal very hard.
Mary went out the back and shot herself in the head.
In another forty-eight hours, Cory was feeling better after taking antibiotics and steroids, and his cough was almost gon
e. His appetite was back, and he was ready to head out as soon as Stevie was better; however, Dave and Robert looked worried and serious about her condition.
Her leg had stopped draining the terrible greenish pus, and red streaks were beginning to show as the swelling intensified. While she cried, and Dave held her hand and almost wept for her, Robert removed the stitches and debrided the skin as he scrubbed out infection, probing down into the wound and pressing at the flesh.
Robert, although he had done a lot of medical work in the past years, came out of the room sweating profusely and shaking with anxiety. Causing Stevie pain was a horrible thing, and he hated to do it, but he wanted to get the bad skin and pus removed and the wound opened so it would drain.
“The leg is worse. If this doesn’t work, then she is gonna have to lose the leg to save her life,” Robert said.
“Lose her leg? What? Why?”
“The antibiotics are not doing the trick. Maybe, they are too old or her body isn’t working right. You know that I am not trained to be a doctor. I do what I can; I don’t know what else to do.”
“Awe, come on Robert, you have to get it drained. Stop saying she’ll lose her leg, man.”
“Cory, you’re her guardian since her parents aren’t here. You have to make the call if it doesn’t work. We’ll know in about six hours or so.”
Cory hung his head.
“I tried to open it; you heard her; I can’t make it drain. She’s young, and she’s in pain and sick, so I can’t go by just what she says. Her parents left you in charge of her so that is still in effect. You have to decide what her parents would want.”
“Robert, I love ya, Man, but you suck.”
Stevie was weak, and her leg throbbed even though she took many painkillers. Dave never left her side and talked to her constantly. He stroked her pale hand thoughtfully. “Stevie, do you think I’m really old?”
Even sick as she was, her eyes twinkled. “Not so old.”
“You’ve never had a boyfriend?”
“No, I think most of the boys at Port A are too scared of my father to court me.”
Dave thought about that. “All a fellow would have to do is ask his permission to court you, I reckon. I mean if you wanted that.”
“Would you be scared of my dad?”
“Should I be?”
“Yup, everyone is, too. But would you be?”
“No, I figure we’d get along just fine. Do you, I mean, could I ask him that when we get to Port A? Would you mind if I did?” He was suddenly shy.
“You’d be my boyfriend?” Stevie asked. “I’m a baby. I don’t know how this works.”
“Me either. I grew up in a hard way, always running from Zs. Is that okay if I ask permission?”
“Yes,” Stevie said. “I don’t know what to do; I mean I don’t know how to have a boyfriend. What will we do when you court me?”
“We’ll go for walks, and you’ll show me the ocean. I’ll think about you when I am supposed to be working, and you’ll giggle with your friends when I wave at you. At night, we’ll sit around a campfire and hold hands.”
Stevie smiled and slipped back to sleep. Her fever broke which was good, and she was in her right mind, but the leg was swelling more and still not draining.
“Cory, she’s worse. I know she’s been talking, and she eats a little, but she’s not doing okay. Her leg has got a lot of red streaks. That’s blood poisoning.
I can’t try to drain the wound anymore because the pain and swelling are too much for her. She acts brave, but she won’t allow me to touch her leg anymore. All I can say is that to save her life, I have to remove the leg.”
“How would you do it?” Cory asked.
“Dope her up as much as I could, tie her to the bed so she doesn’t fight and hurt herself, cut the skin open at the top of her thigh, cut it all the way through skin, muscle, fat, and break the bone, saw through it actually, and remove it.”
“My God, Robert….”
“She can’t survive the shock of cauterizing, so we’d do a tourniquet and then apply pressure and try to stop the bleeding manually. I’d have her on the IV for fluids. She’d be in pain. It will hurt more than it does now but in a different way.”
“You can do that? Can you? Have you?”
“I have. Some make it, and some don’t. I can try.”
“Will she feel a lot of pain?”
Robert took a deep breath. “Yes. Mostly, people don’t pass out from pain until the end, if at all. Shock might knock her out, but she’ll feel it, despite the drugs. Cory, what would Kimball say? What would Beth say?”
Cory thought hard.
“Kimball would say do it and save her. He’s strong that way, in the body. Beth would let her go without suffering the pain. She is too tender hearted. My God, Robert, I don’t know.”
“She says don’t do it, but can she speak for herself at this point?”
Cory let tears run down his cheeks. “How do I decide?”
Dave spoke from the shadows as he walked out into the main room. “You don’t decide. Cory, you are her guardian right now. You give her to me as a wife.”
“Huh?”
“Marry us. You can. Bless it, and let me marry her. As her husband, I can decide for her.”
“You have to be kidding.”
“I’m serious. I want to be married to her.”
“I’d be a coward handing it to someone else to decide,” Cory said.
“Really? You’re asking Robert to decide. Let someone else decide, and let her have her own; what was it Hannah told me about? Her own terms.”
“What if she don’t wanna be married to you?”
“I’ll ask her. Come on; we’ll do this. Let her have this respect and dignity.”
Cory asked to be alone for a while.
Robert came and got him. “The leg is getting worse and fast.”
Cory and Robert followed Dave back to Stevie’s bedside. She woke and sipped water, seeming to rally a little. Dave told her that Cory was her guardian while she was away from her parents and said he had something serious to talk about.
“Stevie, we’ve seen that time can be short, and we don’t have many chances in this world. Because your father isn’t here, I am asking you and Cory if I can have you for my wife.”
Stevie blinked. “Married?”
“If you’ll have me.”
“It’s whatever you want, Honey,” Cory told her, “your choice.”
“Yes,” Stevie said, her face lighting up with a smile. In the doorway, Dale thought her smile was the best thing he had seen in a long time and gave him hope and some happiness.
“I agree then,” Cory said, painfully. It hurt so much. He felt a wave of pain over losing Lexie as well. “I’ll do whatever you ask of me, Stevie.”
“So be it,” Robert said.
“Amen,” Dale gave his blessings.
Dave held her hand again. Dale vanished for a few minutes, then came back out of breath from dodging ghouls, and handed her a bouquet of pink and yellow roses he had cut and removed thorns from, along with wild daisies he had discovered and some bluish-purple flowers. “
He wrapped them in a pretty blue lace handkerchief that he had kept all these years; it had belonged to his wife; “Your bouquet, Stevie. The handkerchief is borrowed, and it’s blue.”
“It can’t be both.”
Robert dug through his pack and pulled out a tiny silk bag. “Here, this is borrowed but keep it.”
Dave found wedding rings. Stevie picked one up and held it out. ”Let’s see how it fits.” Dave offered his left hand, and she slipped it on, “Perfect. And it’s old.” The diamond solitaire was huge, shiny, and clear, and it fit as well.
Stevie held it up for a long time, looking at it.
“That is blue and old. We need borrowed and new.”
“I’ll be back. Dale, come with me. While we’re gone, Cory dig in closets and bags and find Dave something fancier to put on.”
In
minutes, they were back. Robert and Dale threw everyone out of the room for a little bit, and they changed her bandage again, noting that her foot was now black and smelled horrible; they wrapped it so she couldn’t see it. Taking off the leg might not be enough.
She could hardly help as they wrapped a white sheet about her like a toga, baring one pretty shoulder. Dale pinned a pretty gold and pink enamel pin to hold the toga. “This was Ellie’s, and we’re borrowing it, but won’t keep it, okay?”
“It’s pretty and matches the flowers.
Robert told Stevie he was no good with some things, but he brushed her hair and used a full paper of hairpins to pull her long hair into a fancy design on the top of her head. The hairstyle wasn’t a professional look, but the simplicity of style lent innocence to her. “This is new. Mary had it; she found it as she was scavenging a few weeks back, so it’s new, and it is perfect.” Robert clipped a tiara to her hair.
“Mary had make-up. Here’s a mirror, and we can do this,” Dale said.
Stevie saw her hair and gasped. “It’s beautiful.”
She told them how to help. Robert used a brush to apply mineral powder to Stevie’s face and then a glow powder, and the dark circles were hidden beneath her eyes; she looked healthier.
She managed to apply mascara, not trusting the men, got a little blush for her cheeks, asked Robert to pencil in her brows a little and apply smudged lash liner in blue to match her eyes, and put some peach lip gloss on her lips.
“You look perfect,” Dale said. Robert told her to rest a bit, and then it would be ready.
Dave had a clean shirt now and a tie that didn’t really match, he had allowed Cory to trim his hair, and he shaved. Cory declared that Dave looked handsome and was ready to be married.
Cory went in first and handed Stevie her flowers and told her that she looked beautiful; it wasn’t a lie.
Then Dale and Robert stood to the sides as witnesses. Dave walked in, and the men hummed, which was funny, but then he saw how pretty Stevie looked and didn’t care how silly this was or that it was his idea. She was sitting up with pillows behind her, wearing the toga that looked like a pretty dress.
Holding her hand, Cory motioned him to come forward. As Dave came over, Cory told him, “As her father isn’t here, I will stand in for Kimball as her black daddy.” Everyone laughed. He handed Stevie’s hand to Dave and motioned him to sit beside her on the bed.
