The Long Way To Reno

by Mix, Michelle

I had been distracted by the way his muscles worked in his throat when he was speaking to me, so I really didn’t know what he was saying until he gave me a pat on the shoulder. From the look the girl gave me, it must’ve been a compliment of sorts.

  “Just for you, Benson. Have to make sure you procreate to spread more of that good-lookin’ gene you’ve got,” I said, reaching up to pinch one of his cheeks.

  He laughed, and the girl flicked her head and leaned in to say, “I’m really cold. Can you help me find a jacket here?”

  “Save the girls, Benson. I’ve got manlier things to do, like brag about my penis size to this lesbian over here,” I said, walking over to Sandy.

  She had her mouth full of some sandwich, and looked at me with a startled expression. Benson followed, saying, “She’s single, and has been for awhile if you’re interested.”

  “What the hell?” she exclaimed with her mouth full, as I gave the set-up in the kitchen a disinterested look. “Like I want to be labeled like that!”

  “You make me quiver inside, Sandy, and I always do that around men,” I said, straightening.

  “So?”

  “At the same time, I doubt you’re her type,” Benson continued, turning to assure the clingy lady that he’d help her in a bit. “She’s more of the healthy variety.”

  Sandy chewed furiously, then looked at him in outage. But one could tell, with a look at both of them, that their familiarity with each other spanned years. These were friends that knew too much of each other, and could talk freely. “What the hell?”

  Sandy jerked away from me, sliding down from the counter. “It’s okay, Sandy. I’m totally cool with it. You’ll fall in love with me soon enough, just like Benson did.”

  “I fell pretty hard – “ Benson mock-confessed, hand rubbing his chest.

  “I’ll give you another black eye!” Sandy threatened me, licking crumbs from her fingers.

  I played with my hair, giving her a confident expression. “If it gives you an excuse to lay your manly hands on me, I’ll let you.”

  “Jennings, if you’re hitting on her, Harley’s going to have problems,” Emmy said, speaking up from behind Benson, fully made-up and grinning as my face reflected irritation at the boyfriend implication. The lady, seeing Benson wasn’t going to be distracted from Sandy’s gang-bang, offered to make him a sandwich instead. The other lady he’d been talking to was already there, totally cutting her off at the pass.

  “Harley’s not my boyfriend,” I said low, looking for him. He was still talking to the other ladies, helping them arrange a massive bed for the women, the men reluctantly attending to their own on the other side of the living room. He still had my vest, hanging from one shoulder.

  Benson snorted while Sandy rolled her hazel eyes. “So much denial, much like Sandy’s sexuality.”

  “He’s not! I barely even know him! The only reason why we were – like we knew each other, was because we worked at the same place!”

  “He’s so nice,” Emmy repeated, looking mournful. “And you just use him.”

  “I don’t use him - ! Well, not yet, I have to admit,” I said reluctantly.

  “You are shameless,” Sandy commented with a snort.

  “I’m a pretty girl, Sandy, I can pretty much get away with murder.”

  “Any Rabid killing bad-ass has the pick of the litter,” Benson interrupted. “I think we’ve pretty much agreed this one’s that.”

  “Not even!” Emmy rejected, giving him her teenage denial expression.

  “I haven’t seen her do much other than running away and putting on makeup,” Sandy said, nose wrinkled. I made a smooching sound in her direction, and she shoved me against the counter, stalking off.

  For some reason Benson got a kick out of that and laughed before everyone shushed him. Eventually, the ladies herded him away from the dangerous man-predator, Emmy decided to continue to throw her teenage whims on him, and Harley trapped me in the kitchen by offering to make me a sandwich. I pulled my vest from him, shrugging it on carelessly. He took that gesture as an ‘okay’ to his intentions.

  “So…I’m glad you’re talking to Emmy,” he said, handing my sandwich over and then making one for himself. I wished he added more contents to it, because if he was going to be my ally, he needed more meat on him. “She was really looking down. Y’know, she’s the youngest survivor I’ve seen so far. She needs a lot of support and reassurance.”

  “Right, right.”

  “Uh, also…I’m, uh…sorry. You know. For…last Tuesday,” he then said carefully, brow wrinkling. I paused in mid-chew, and tried to think of what happened back then. He saw that I had no idea of what he was talking about, and said, “When I hit you with my skeleton cart. I really didn’t see you when I turned the corner. I didn’t mean to. Honestly. It was just…I was just trying to stay atop of my numbers, and – y’know, you just get into the zone when, y’know, you’re in that mode.”

  Yeah, I know that mood – sometimes it was hard to see people and other workers when I was so focused.

  “I tried to apologize, but you’d just take off.”

  “We ate in the same break room, had the same breaks,” I said with a frown. I always saw him with a group of other teal badges at the table in the far back.

  “Yea, but…you always had those guys with you. If it wasn’t those guys, it was some other guy. All of them who eyed me whenever I came close. Well, if anybody came close.”

  “I can’t help it if I make people territorial,” I said childishly. I knew what effect I had on guys. I’m not blind, or stupid, or Bella. I’d always thought that I were Bella, I’d use Edward’s money to make me happy, sleep with Jacob to satisfy my man-wants and then have an affair with Emmitt. I’d be satisfied with a polygamous marriage, as long as I was the only wife.

  He sighed. “Just…I’m sorry. There are other people I wanted to apologize to, but…I just never had the chance.”

  “Harley Troy,” I said, just to say his two first names, “if this hadn’t happened, would you have approached me anyway?”

  Harley played with his chips. One of the ladies asked him for a soda, so he found one and gave it to her. Sandy was going through my bag, shaking her head at the prompt of a woman, and as Harley said something, I heard Sandy mention needing tampons.

  It suddenly occurred to me that I’d never witnessed a lady having menstrual problems in all of zombie-history.

  Then I realized Harley was waiting for an answer, and I had to say, “huh?”

  “No,” he repeated, looking guilty. “I wouldn’t. You’re…not my type.”

  “Why?” I blurted, because my vanity was hurt.

  “Well…” he trailed off, then looked terrorized while I glared up at him. “I don’t know, I – just – you look high maintenance,” he said lamely.

  I had to agree with that one. I let the offended expression on my face fade. “But, really, you think someone that looks as good as I do is this natural?”

  “No, but - !”

  “DUH I’m high maintenance! I am a living trophy meant for a manly man. Why settle for something lower when I’m that much of a catch?”

  He looked away, probably wondering why I’d even bother with explaining the obvious to him when he knew it already.

  “I don’t know why you think anything’s going to happen between us, because the moment I get into Reno, I’m leaving all of you to go find my parents. You’re only going to hurt yourself for being stupid enough to think I’d lower my standards for somebody like you.”

  From the expression on his face, I knew I cut him pretty low. And, really, I didn’t care because it was true. I rolled my eyes, snatched his sandwich, and stomped off to my corner in the room. Pretty stupid if this guy thought he had a chance with me.

  Chapter Eight

  Later on, I was still fuming over the exchange between me and Harley. But the more I thought about things, the more I realized – dang, I’m a selfish creature. A woman like myself, overconfident and se
lf-centered but powerful because she knows she can get ahead with her looks and manipulation – really, who likes those sort of people? Here I am, in the middle of an invasion and slaughtering of the human race, and I still think I’m a catch.

  I glared out at the darkness. I heard Rabid screams and snarls, but gunfire as well. There were follow-up shouts and calls that told me the soldiers were drawing the dangerous things away from the doublewide we were holed up in.

  It was really dark in Lockwood – extremely cold. I’d grabbed my stuff and stormed off onto the back porch because I am a dramatic person that does that sort of thing.

  My breath was visible as I breathed, glaring out towards the Sparks area. A set of explosions had sent more smoke and clouds of debris into the air, and I could only imagine it being the aftereffects of a world that had fallen into chaos. I wondered how many other survivors were out there, roaming the city streets, looking for evacuation centers. Kept wondering if my parents were at these centers, if they’d had enough time to pack what they could and made it to safety in time.

  I was fairly confident my dad was taking good care of my mother. Despite his harsh words and gruff exterior, he was a man that loved his woman. My parents had married young – through all the years and troubles, affairs and jubilation over a great many things, they were still together. I fully trusted them in surviving just long enough for me to come home to them. I needed to be with them, to know that they were safe – after that, I don’t care what happened.

  I heard someone come outside, the door opening and shutting quietly – but with how silent and still it was in this part of the neighborhood, it sounded like a damn explosion. I had to resist the urge to run like a panicked animal.

  “Sorry,” Benson said, hiding himself against the wall of the outdoor closet nearby. The water heater was visible next to it, where Allen had fiddled with it earlier. I looked at him, noticing that he was hiding from those that were looking out. It amused me that he had to hide and escape his fan girls, coming out to visit with the most dangerous one. “So…you had words.”

  “Were you listening to all that drama?” I asked, keeping my voice low. I returned to looking out into the darkness. I didn’t want to turn around and give this piece of man-beauty away to those that were still inside.

  “I think most of us were. Just a distraction from all the stuff happening.” He sighed heavily as he leaned back against the closet. He still wore most of his gear – his helmet was sitting on the kitchen counter. He had blonde hair shaped in that ugly close crop that the military was infamous for. “Kinda makes me think that things are, and can be, normal again.”

  “I don’t even know the guy. I just barely met him. But it’s stupid to think that he could have feelings for me just because we were grouped together by circumstance.”

  “Well, people fall for each other during times of stress. Why is that so bad?” Benson asked, amusement in his tone.

  “Just so that he or I can be killed in the next hour, the next day? There’s no point. In video games, people can die just like that, but there’s the reset button, or the option to respawn,” I said. I leaned against the porch railing, looking down at old dog crap on what used to be a sod-laid lawn. “Out here, there’s not even convenient defib units to bring a person back to life.”

  It was true – I think it was just extreme luck that we kept running into each other.

  “So romantic,” Benson supplied, still with that tone. “Wanting to save him and his feelings.”

  “That’s not how I see things,” I said, brow furrowing. “I’m not interested in him. How can a girl be interested in something like that in the middle of an apocalypse? People are dying, there are aliens destroying cities, and then there’s this in the middle of it all. Seriously, not interested.”

  “You’ve got a point, there. But there’s another side to it all. Me and Sandy talked about this, once, when we were stationed in Afghanistan? If you meet somebody, would you go for it despite knowing you’re going to die the next day anyway, just to have that chance, or spare both him or her that devastation and be like, whatever.”

  I drummed my fingertips atop of the railing. Found it selfish that I was busy being dramatic with my situation when there were people in this world that have been put into this situation once before. Then felt annoyed because a guy in a military uniform was giving me love advice. Shouldn’t he be busy controlling the perimeters and looking angsty over his assault rifle while reliving bad memories of his time overseas?

  “So…what was your thing?” I asked curiously, staring at a particularly crusty turd. Must’ve been a big dog that once stayed here. I wondered what happened to it.

  “Well…I was like you. Like, hell with it. Why even bother giving that person that one chance just to be blown up the next day? Spare them.” He then snorted, shifted from one boot to the other. “Then Sandy fell in love with this translator assigned to our company. I watched her never regret that affair.”

  I found it neat that these two were so close. Like brother and sister, almost. I kind of envied that sort of interaction – I never had that sort of closeness because of the villainous side of me.

  “Why is this even a topic?” I asked, wondering about the woman Sandy had fallen for. I bet it was mega-romantic – Sandy seemed the take charge type.

  “Because I think Troy’s a hella cool dude. He saved our lives – I gotta repay him something,” Benson said. I looked at him – only mildly curious as to how that dork saved these big, tough soldiers, but not enough to pursue the subject.

  I merely rolled my eyes. “I don’t have feelings for this guy.”

  Benson gave me a look that clearly said I was full of shit, so I felt insulted.

  “By the time I get into Reno, I’m gone, Benson. I’m going to find my parents, and that’s it for me. After that, what happens happens.” I looked at him, and then grinned. “So sleep with me right now, or you miss out.”

  Benson laughed loudly, and then shut up hastily – but someone still heard him from inside. The door opened and one of his fan girls stepped out to find him, completely ignoring me. He gave me a dirty look as he was then coerced inside, and I waved goodbye to him, a little more cheered now that I was out there by myself. Once I heard the door shut behind him, I continued with my gloomy pity-party thoughts and stared out at the devastation that was the freeway. I hoped that my parents hadn’t tried to take it out to Fernley to find me.

  : :

  By the time I came back in, feeling pretty bad for my dramatics, everyone was settled down in their respective beds. Sandy indicated for me to join them. I looked over to Harley, but he had his back turned to me, and I couldn’t think of what to say to him to alleviate the fact that I am a total villain.

  Rather reluctantly, I unhooked my Fubar, set my bag aside; Sandy stared at me until I took my vest off, setting all three next to me. I lowered myself to the spot assigned to me, then stood up quickly.

  “Bathroom,” I said, much to their impatience. I felt way too paranoid to be resting comfortably in a situation like this – too jittery, anxious. I was tired, and I did feel better with the others outside killing things, but so much had occurred for me to be completely at rest.

  “Make it quick. The others are coming back, and we have to decide who’s going to be on watch throughout the night,” Sandy said above the low mutterings from the floor.

  “Why do we have to be asleep for that?” I asked curiously, feeling a tingle of awareness. That very same thing that warned me about Jeff and the others was coming back.

  “I don’t know.” She tilted her head in one direction, where a soldier was standing, eying me suspiciously. I didn’t even see him until she pointed him out. “Victor here just came in. He’s going to stand guard while ‘the tards and I meet with the sarge. So he wants you to hurry up and get laid down while we chat with our superior.”

  “Okay, okay,” I muttered. I made my way to the bathroom, did my thing – at the last minute, I applie
d my colored chapstick. I felt a little better at seeing something normal on my face. I was trying to ease my nerves, talk myself out of my mounting paranoia and attributing it just to stress and exhaustion, but the more I looked at myself in the mirror, the worse I felt.

  By the time I left the bathroom, I’d made up my mind. I snatched my things with a huff, and stomped over to Harley. He looked surprised, then irritated as I announced that I was not sleeping anywhere without my boyfriend, rules or not.

  Emmy groaned aloud, Harley tried to protest, but I kicked him to make him shut up. Sandy rolled her eyes and muttered something to Victor before leaving the doublewide. I didn’t take my things off as I shoved Harley aside and rolled under the blankets next to him. There were quiet conversations here and there as everyone settled down for the night – Victor’s unnerving stare at all of us continued to make me paranoid.