"Looks like we have a room to clear out," Jen said.
"This place is nice," I said, "But we can keep looking."
"It's just the one room," Jen said.
"Yeah," I said, "but we'll have to get him out then carry out that filthy mattress."
"We'll just shoot him then dump the body out the window," Jen said.
"That mattress isn't going to fit out the window."
It briefly hit me what an odd conversation that was. Exactly one week before, I would have never dreamed I'd have a conversation like that.
"What do you think, Sara?" I said.
"It's really gross."
Jen rolled her eyes, "Well, there you go. It's not just gross; it's really gross. Thank you so much for your input, dear."
"Why do you have to be so mean?" Sara said and walked down the hall to the stairs.
We both watched her leave.
"Yeah," I said. "Why do you?"
"It was just a joke," she said.
"It was uncalled for," I said. "And it's not the first time you've done it to her."
Jen walked down the hall and went into one of the other bedrooms. I followed her. She was standing at a dresser looking through drawers.
"What are you doing?" I said.
She slammed a drawer shut and sat on the bed.
"Well it turns out that we're not the last man and woman on Earth," she said.
"No, but that's good, isn't it?" I said, not really sure what she meant.
"Yeah, it's good," she said.
"You don't sound like you mean it."
I heard the front door, so I went over to the window. Sara was outside.
"We've been spending day and night together for...what? Five or six days? You haven't tried anything."
"Tried anything?" I said, turning around.
"I've never been with a man this long without them trying to get in my pants. Do you not think of me like that?"
"What? Jen, look what we've been through. I mean, there's a damn monster tied to the bed in the next room sitting in his own shit."
"I need to know where we stand," she said. "I think we need to be on the same page. I wanted to stay here, and then you and Sara want to do something else. You and her have been agreeing a lot lately."
"What are you talking about?"
"Listen, I don't like what life has handed us here. This is some messed up shit, but we can still try to be happy, can't we?"
"Sure."
She stood and went over to the window.
"I thought we were getting along. I thought that maybe I had a decent shot at a life, such as it is, with a decent man. Finally, after all the deadbeats and jerks, I found somebody that treated me like a person. Then along comes the young chick with the hot ass, and suddenly I don't exist anymore."
"Jen, I haven't--"
"No, but you want to. Look at her out there. She's so damned adorable that I might just make a pass at her myself."
I didn't know what to say.
She turned to face me.
"As bad as things are now," she continued, tears coming to her eyes, "they were worse for me before. Things are scary now, but they were before, too. Zach was dealing meth on the side. His friends scared me. The cops scared me. Hell, Zach scared me. The sad thing is he was the best boyfriend I'd had in years. At least he had a job and a little money, you know? What an asshole.
"Then everything happened, and there you were. You even went back inside my house just to get me some shoes. Zach would have never done that for me.
"I hated my job. I had debt that I'd never be able to pay off. Then all that went away, and it was just me and you. I felt like somebody really cared about me for once."
"I do care about you," I said, "but we've been kind of busy trying to stay alive. Anyway, I know we've been together for the past few days, but we barely know each other."
She stood up, grabbed my hand, and shook it.
"Hi. My name is Jen. Pleased to meet you. Have you met Sara? She's the one outside with the boobs that you keep staring at. Or maybe you'd like to meet my friend Brian; maybe he's what you're looking for?"
"Why are you pressuring me like this?" I said.
"Sheez," she said, pushing past me to the hallway, "Grow a pair, would ya?"
I propped my shotgun against the wall and stepped out after her. I grabbed her arm and spun her around.
"Let me go," she said.
I pulled her in, pulled our masks down and kissed her.
Wow.
It was short-lived. She shoved me away.
"I don't want your damn charity," she said and started toward the stairs.
I grabbed her again and pushed her against the wall. She struggled a little, but I wouldn't let her get away.
I kissed her again, and she melted against me.
CHAPTER 29
We heard the front door open again. Jen pushed me away a little. She pulled her mask back up over her nose and mouth. She tenderly touched my cheek then pulled my mask up, too.
"Don't forget your gun," she whispered. Then she went to the stairs, leaving me staring after her. She looked back at me, her eyes smiling.
I went back for my shotgun.
When I got downstairs, Sara and Jen were standing in the kitchen.
"What's up?" I said.
"I was apologizing. Sara was right--it is really gross. We can find a different house. It's not like we'd ever be able to clean that room enough."
"Okay," I said. "But we can come back. We know this is a house we can take stuff from."
"Like that Escalade out there," Jen said, picking up the keys from the table. "Let's leave the truck here, and we'll go house-hunting in style."
Jen wanted to drive. She didn't care where we looked for a new house. Initially, I wanted to stay near Blaine's, because of the familiarity, but if we found a perfect place, it didn't really matter where it was. We drove around for another hour, staying away from the city limits and exploring back roads.
We saw a few people stumbling around outside, but they never threatened us. We passed an open tobacco barn and saw a whole group of them crowded together inside for shelter. They weren't completely mindless. They did, as the saying goes, have enough sense to get in out of the rain.
"We ought to torch that barn," Jen said, driving by slowly. "That would be one group we wouldn't have to worry about."
"So we're going to be exterminators?" I said.
"I'm not talking about hunting them," she said, "but why pass up an opportunity?"
"It's too wet," Sara said. "But I agree; they all need to go."
That was surprising. Sara didn't talk much anyway, and we'd never had any indication that she was in a hurry to hurt anyone.
"See?" Jen said. "Sara's on my side."
"From what we've seen, there's no guarantee that anything will kill them forever," I said. "You might just piss them off."
"One thing I've been thinking about," Jen said. "We should all probably try to find some handguns. We're going to keep scaring survivors when we knock on their door and we're all obviously armed. We need to be armed, but we need a way to hide it so they aren't afraid of us. I know I wouldn't answer the door if there was someone outside with a shotgun. If I did, I'd probably answer with a shotgun myself."
"We have the twenty-two. We also have that thirty-eight and the nine millimeters that we found at city hall," I said. "But we need ammo."
"Just something to think about," she said.
We had traveled in a big circle, and we were headed back towards Blaine's place from the opposite direction when we came across something promising. There was a sign by the road that said LASSITER STABLES: HORSE BOARDING, FARRIERING, and RIDING LESSONS.
The entire property--probably thirty or forty acres--was enclosed in a white board fence, and then subdivided by more fences to form smaller pastures. The long driveway cut right up the middle, and was fenced on either side. There were horses in a couple of the fields.
"This l
ooks pretty good," I said as Jen pulled in the driveway. "We could put a gate up there at the entrance, and I think that fence should discourage the infected."
The driveway led to an old, two-story house. The house reminded me of watching reruns of The Waltons with my mom when I was a kid. There were two barns and a little greenhouse. The property was immaculate. The owners had kept the place maintained and tidy.
There were five pickup trucks parked around the barns, including one with a horse trailer attached. There were also a couple of tractors, a four-wheeler, and a golf cart.
"Sara," I said. "Hand me that revolver."
She passed it over the seat to me.
"I'm going to go up to the house and check it out," I said. "You two stay here."
"Since when did we become the frail, little women?" Jen said.
"Since your conversation about handguns," I said. "We only have one, so only one of us will go knock on the door."
She just stared at me without expression.
"But please do cover me with the rifle from here," I said. "And stop looking at me like that. This was your idea, wasn't it?"
"Whatever," she said.
I got out, put the weapon in my pants, and then covered it with my shirt.
I went up to the porch, opened the screen door and knocked. After waiting a few seconds and knocking again, I tried the door. It was open.
"Hello? Anyone home?"
No one answered, so I motioned for Jen and Sara to join me.
The interior of the house was just as clean and neat as the property outside. The decor in the living room was a western motif. In the dining room, I found places set for four people. There were days-old biscuits, sausage, and gravy in the plates. Next to one plate was a copy of The Clayfield Chronicle. It was dated last Thursday. The only thing out of place was one dining room chair that was overturned and a cup of orange juice was spilled.
"No one has been in here in a long time," I said. "We can check upstairs, but I think we're good here."
"There's a fireplace in the living room," Jen said. "I like this place."
"What about all the horses?" Sara said.
"I love horses," Jen said.
"I do, too, but how are we going to take care of them?" Sara said.
We all stood there staring at each other. This was not something I had considered. Did we, by taking a property, become responsible for all of the livestock on that property? And what about all of the other livestock all over the countryside?
"We can't take care of them," I said. "So what do we do with them?"
Jen walked over to the window and looked out into the pasture.
"Eventually, we'll need horses won't we?"
"I don't know," I said. "Maybe in a year or more. We have plenty of vehicles and gasoline around for a while--until the gas goes bad, I guess. I can't see the need right now."
"How many do you think there are?" Sara said. "I saw five on that one side. I wonder if there are any in the barns."
"There are seven over here," Jen said. "Can't they just eat grass?"
"That's the thing," I said. "I don't know. I don't know anything about horses. I see big troughs out there. So someone has to give them water."
"Could we just let them go?" Sara said. "Would they go?"
"Let's search the rest of the house. Then we'll go out to the barns and see what we're dealing with," I said.
The house had two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and another bedroom downstairs. The fireplace was clean and didn't look like it had been used in a while. There was a big propane tank out back, so we'd be able to use the stovetop in the kitchen. The gas line was likely hooked into the water heater and central heat as well, but the furnace had a blower and they both had thermostats that required electricity, so they'd be useless to us.
There was more pasture behind the house, and more horses, too. One of the pastures had a small pond. It had been raining enough that the horses were getting some water in their troughs, but when the rain stopped, they would probably go through that quickly--I figured a horse could drink a lot. We'd have to let them out so they could find food and water on their own.
"There's going to be a problem with all these animals," I said. "I've been thinking about this off and on since this started. Domesticated animals have relied on people for a long time. Now the people aren't there for them anymore."
Jen nodded.
"I got to thinking about that when we found that dead cat today," she said. "My aunt has a house full of cats."
"Think about all the indoor pets--cats, dogs, hamsters, and goldfish." I said. "They'll all eventually die of thirst or starvation trapped in their owners' houses. Then, there are farm animals. They'll have a better shot, but not much better. Eventually, they'll start dying. I would think with all of the death, we'll have more disease to worry about. Canton B won't be our only problem."
"Let's check the barns," Jen said. "If there are more in there, then they've been in there for almost a week. Let's hope they've had enough food and water."
The three of us went out. On the way, Sara looked in the horse trailer.
"Aww," she said. "There's one in here. I think it's dead."
We joined her and looked inside. There was a gray horse in the floor of the trailer. It's head was stretched up, still secured to the front of the trailer by a halter and lead rope. Its eyes were open and its tongue was hanging out of the side of its mouth. It broke my heart to see it.
Jen started crying.
"I'll check the barns," I said, taking the shotgun from Sara. "There's no need in you two having to see anything like this."
"I've told you before," Jen said. "I'm not a child, and I don't need you to coddle me."
I nodded and started toward the nearest barn. She grabbed my arm, and I looked back at her.
"But thank you for offering," she said.
I nodded again and proceeded to the barn.
The building was cleaner than my house. There was a corridor down the middle with five stalls on the left side and four stalls on the right. On the right side, where the fifth stall would have been, there was an office. The barn also had a big loft stacked with hay that ran half the length of the building.
We were glad to find all of the stalls empty. Jen went into the office.
"Old Mr. Lassiter really cracked the whip, didn't he?"
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Look how clean it is in here," she said. "Textbook Virgo. Can you imagine working for this guy?"
"You believe all that zodiac stuff?" I said.
"It doesn't matter if I believe it," she said. "It's truth, and truth is truth whether you believe it or not."
"My pastor says that astrology is evil," Sara said.
Jen started to speak, then looked at me, and held her tongue. I smiled at her.
"Could be that Mr. Lassiter's employees were all Virgos," I said. "Maybe Mr. Lassiter was a messy Pisces like me."
"See? Pisces are supposed to be messy, so it is true."
"I think it's just a coincidence," I said.
"There's no such thing," Jen smiled. "So, a Pisces, huh? No wonder I like you so much."
The second barn was just like the first except instead of an office it had a tack room full of saddles and bridles and farriering tools. There was a pleasant smell of hay, leather, and...well, I guess the other smell was horse. One of the stalls was occupied by a billy goat. There was still a little water in his trough. I climbed up in the loft and threw down some hay for him.
After I climbed down, the three of us stood in the entrance of the barn and looked out, listening to the rain tap on the metal roof.
"What is our horse count?" I said.
"Sixteen," Sara said. "Not counting the one in the trailer."
"A whole damn herd," Jen said. "Now what?"
"The field behind the house has a pond," I said. "We can either put them all together in that pasture, or we can let them out. If we keep them, I guess we'll have to throw h
ay out for them every day until springtime and grass starts growing again, but there will be no way to water them except with the pond."
"There must be a reason why they were all separated," Jen said.
"Yeah, I know."
"We should keep some, and let the rest go," Jen said.
"How do we decide?" Sara asked. "And what happens to the ones we let go?"
"I don't give them very good odds," I said.
Sara got a pained expression on her face.
"I know," Jen said, "but it is better that we keep a few and have plenty of food and water for them, than save all of them and they starve."
"Personally, I'd prefer to get rid of all of them," I said. "We have enough to worry about without having to take care of a bunch of horses. If we're going to have animals at all, we should have animals that will provide us with food."
They didn't seem too happy with my input on the subject.
"It's not something we have to worry about today," I said. "I wouldn't mind staying here for a while. If you two want to stay here, lets go back to Blaine's and get our stuff, then we'll get that firewood and come back. By the time we do that it'll be about time to call it a day anyway."
CHAPTER 30
It was late afternoon by the time we returned to the Lassiter house with our supplies and firewood. We didn't have anything to put the chickens into, so we fed them and left them where they were with the intention of coming back for them later.
As I pulled into the driveway I realized it was the only entrance and exit for the property. We'd have to fix that. I wouldn't want to get cornered.
Sara volunteered to start on dinner while Jen and I unloaded the vehicles.
"When we've unloaded, I want to get rid of that horse trailer," I said.
"Do you think we'll need it?" Jen said. "We could always drag the horse out of here."
"No," I said. "There are horse trailers around at other houses if we ever really need one. I'd rather not mess with removing the horse."
Once we got everything into the house, I stepped into the kitchen.
"Jen and I are going to take care of that horse trailer," I said. "Will you be okay here by yourself until we get back?"
"I'll lock the doors," she said. "And I have a gun. I'm not too sure about the temperature outside. I don't know if this food is still good."
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