by David Spell
McCain even spoke of Greg, Tonya, and baby Jeremy. He’d had no choice when he shot Tonya, but he felt a tremendous sadness for Jeremy. What kind of world was he growing up in? Would he even get a chance to grow up? Chuck didn’t trust Greg to do the right thing but there was no way that McCain was going to bring the child with him. What terrible choices people were having to make in a society where law and order had broken down.
By the time McCain had finished talking, he was emotionally drained. He felt the tears flowing down his face and turned away, embarrassed. Elizabeth climbed off the bed and stood next to Chuck, putting her small arm around his broad shoulders. She pulled him close, holding him as he cried.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
CHAPTER THREE
Heart Issues
Abandoned house, South of Carnesville, Northeast of Atlanta, Wednesday, 1600 hours
Both Elizabeth and Chuck felt better, somehow lighter. Neither one could explain it but opening their hearts to each other, sharing their similar pain, confessing the guilt they carried, had started the healing process in both of them. Elizabeth could never remember pouring her heart out to anyone like she had just experienced with Chuck. There was a comfort level with this virtual stranger that she had not felt with a man in a long time.
And after hearing how he had lost the woman that he’d loved, Benton now understood the sadness she had seen in his eyes. McCain had been carrying his own load of anguish for a long time. And yet, he had chosen to risk his life to save hers, and was treating her with the utmost courtesy and respect as they huddled in an abandoned home in the Georgia blizzard.
This Chuck McCain was a complex man, Elizabeth pondered. He was a killer; she had seen him in action, but at the same time, he was gentle, letting her cry herself out as he held her and told her it was going to be OK. Elizabeth could feel herself being pulled into this man’s orbit and she didn’t understand it.
He’s so much older than me, she thought. Maybe I just feel this way because he saved my life and I’m so grateful for that gift. Plus, we’re stuck together inside this freezing house. Or maybe it’s because we’re both hurting that I’m feeling drawn to him.
Don’t let your emotions get away from you, Elizabeth told herself. You’ve just seen three of your friends murdered, you were beaten and had your brain scrambled, kidnapped, and then rescued by a stranger in a hail of gunfire. Of course you’re emotions are going to be out of whack. And Chuck has bigger things on his mind than me, she reasoned. I’m just a little blip on Mr. McCain’s radar.
McCain was embarrassed that he had lost control of his emotions with this young woman whom he didn’t even know. At the same time, though, he had to admit that it had felt good to open the door on some of those feelings that he had tried so hard to keep bottled up. It touched him deeply that, even in her own pain, Elizabeth had held him while the tears had rolled down his face. Chuck wasn’t a crier and it hadn’t lasted long, but the human contact, the physical touch, meant a lot. And coming from a pretty, young woman was a nice added benefit.
The swelling on Benton’s face had gone down by the afternoon. McCain was happy that the ice compresses were doing their work, and that her headaches were not as severe. The area around her left eye was purple and would be sore for several days. McCain’s face had taken so much punishment in his fighting career that his own black eye wasn’t even something that he thought about.
While Elizabeth napped, Chuck worked out on the carpeted floor of the living room. Since the homeowner didn’t have any exercise equipment, McCain started with ten sets of twenty-five pushups. Then he elevated his feet onto a chair, performing ten sets of twenty decline pushups, interspersing those with ten sets of fifteen unweighted squats. He finished his training with crunches until he could do no more, finally lying back on the carpet to catch his breath.
“Pretty impressive,” Elizabeth said, watching from where she was perched at the top of the stairs.
“Thanks, the end of the world has made it kind of tough to stay consistent with my workouts.” That one is sneaky, Chuck thought. I didn’t know she was there until she spoke.
“We’ve got a nice gym at the college that you can use.”
He glanced at her and saw a hopeful expression on her face. He sat up and began his stretching routine. “Do you use the gym much?” he asked.
“Not really,” she admitted. “I like to run. I’ve done a couple of half marathons but never got into weight training.”
Benton walked down the stairs, seating herself on the couch as McCain continued stretching on the floor. She wrapped his blanket around her shoulders, her breath visible with every exhale in the cold house.
“What are we going to do, Chuck? I know we can’t leave until the temperature rises and melts the roads, but when that happens, what were you thinking?”
McCain shrugged. “We’ll get you back to your friends at the college and I’ll keep going. I’ll head over to Brian’s house in Hartwell and see if Melanie left me an address where I can find her in North Carolina. All I know is that she said it was near Hendersonville.”
“Okay,” said Elizabeth, “But if you want to stay with us for a few days at the campus, we have a generator that we turn on three days a week to take hot showers and wash our laundry. We also try to have one hot meal a day in the cafeteria. How does that sound? A hot shower, clean clothes, a few hot meals. And, don’t forget the gym. Plus, I’m sure we can give you some food to take with you when you leave.”
It sounds like she’s trying to sell me an apocalyptic time-share, he thought. Chuck quickly did the math in his head. It would be almost a full day’s walk from Lavonia to Hartwell, maybe longer depending on his route or if he had to evade Zs and/or living predators.
When he didn’t answer right away, Chuck saw disappointment on Elizabeth’s face. She really wants me to stay, he realized, surprised at the revelation. To be able to take a hot shower and wash his meager wardrobe did sound amazing. And he couldn’t remember the last hot meal that he’d had.
“You sure I wouldn’t be a burden? It sounds like you guys have enough mouths to feed as it is.”
The young woman’s face lit up. “No! You saved my life, Chuck. It’s the least that I can do. Plus, I know that you and Mr. Nicholson will enjoy talking. Maybe you could take a look and make sure our defenses are strong enough?”
“Ok, I’ll stay for a day or two. That sounds like a good idea. But speaking of defense,” McCain said, “tomorrow, I want to work with you on your weapon skills. I’m going to show you how to handle your pistol and then I’m going to teach you how to use a rifle. It’s just you and me on the drive back to the school and if we get attacked, two guns are better than one.”
Benton nodded slowly, the events of the previous day still fresh in her mind. She had no desire to ever touch a gun again but, in this new world, she knew that knowing how to shoot was a very important skill to master. Elizabeth had seen McCain in action, and even what she had witnessed in her dazed state let her know that she needed to learn everything she could from him.
She swallowed and said, quietly, “Sure. You’re right. I don’t have much experience with guns but I’m willing to learn.”
Chuck nodded. “Good enough. You don’t have to become an expert but give me a couple of hours tomorrow and I’ll help you develop some skills that might save your life or my life. And it’s not like there’s whole lot else to do.”
After a few more minutes of stretching, McCain got to his feet and said, “I’m going to go take a look outside. If everything’s clear, I want to do an inventory of what’s in those boxes in your car. It looks like the guys who kidnapped you had already loaded some supplies into the back and I didn’t get a chance to dig through all the stuff that I took from their house. I also want check out all the guns and ammo I took from them. Maybe there’s even something good in one of those boxes that we could have for dinner.”
An hour later, they sat on opposite ends of the couch
eating cans of cold beef stew and drinking cold beers. Chuck was tempted to light a fire in the fireplace but he knew that it would be a mistake. He had seen first-hand the strong sense of smell which the infected possessed. And for any roving bands of criminals, smoke out of a chimney would be a red flag announcing the presence of victims waiting to be attacked.
McCain had gone through all the boxes in the Cherokee, finding a variety of both industrial-sized cans of food for use in a restaurant and smaller ones for individual family use. The truck stop had a diner and the kidnappers had raided the kitchen as well as the shelves of the store. There were main dishes, like the beef stew they were eating, along with vegetables and soups.
The criminals had also loaded up on bottled water, beer, wine, and cigarettes. Chuck had been pleasantly surprised to find an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey and another of Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch in one of the boxes from the house. Of course, these were now safe in the back of Elizabeth’s SUV.
The sizable weapons and ammo cache in the vehicle included the firearms the gang had stolen from Elizabeth and her friends, the guns the kidnappers had used, and the stash at their house. Benton pointed out a 9mm Springfield XD pistol as the one she had been carrying. Chuck brought it and one of the AR-15s into the house.
As they ate, Benton asked McCain questions about his law enforcement career and his fight against the zombie virus. She was also curious about Melanie and wanted to know all about Chuck’s daughter. As they talked, Elizabeth realized that by learning about Melanie, she was learning more about her father, too.
After they finished eating, Elizabeth carried their trash into the kitchen and came back with two more beers, handing one to Chuck.
“Have you got a boyfriend on campus who’s worrying about you?” McCain asked.
She took a drink before answering. “No. I’d just broken up with a guy I’d been dating when the situation with my parents happened. Now, there’s someone at the school who thinks we’re dating but I can’t convince him that I’m not interested. I made the mistake of having lunch with Bradley one time in the meal hall and now he thinks we’re a couple.”
Elizabeth shook her head and continued. “He follows me around. I catch him watching me when I’m outside or even from the other side of the cafeteria. He’s several years younger than I am, he’s a student, and isn’t even on my radar of guys I might be interested in.”
Chuck smiled. “That sucks. You’ve got a stalker on a campus where you can’t get away.”
“I’ve told him over and over that I’m not looking for a relationship right now but he doesn’t want to take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“I could have a talk with him,” McCain suggested, sipping his beer. “I can be pretty persuasive when I need to be. Remember, I have a daughter not much younger than you and I had several heart-to-heart conversations with some of the boys who came sniffing around.”
“I don’t want to make him feel bad,” Benton said. “I just want him to leave me alone. Honestly, I haven’t felt like being with anyone since Momma and Daddy died. I’ve really been a loner for the last few months. I would stay in my room or in my office, trying not to interact with anyone unless I absolutely had to. A friend of mine on the faculty teaches nursing. She confronted me one day and told me that I was depressed and offered me some medicine.”
“What did you do?” Chuck asked.
“I didn’t take the medicine but I did start running again a few weeks ago. There’s a track at the school and I’ve been running every day. The exercise has helped, plus I’ve been trying to get out of my dorm room more and to be a little more sociable. Even volunteering to go out on the mission was a big deal for me because I’d been so reclusive. I think I was starting to get better but this morning was a real turning point.”
“How so?”
“When we talked and you let me cry on your shoulder, it was like someone lifted a thousand pound weight off of me. I’d been carrying the guilt of my parents’ deaths around for all of this time. You didn’t judge me even though I’ve been judging myself. You affirmed me and helped to see that whole situation in a different light. I think the black cloud is finally lifting off of me.”
McCain saw the smile light up her pretty face as she spoke. He was glad that the young woman was feeling better but he had not had so many touchy-feely conversations in years. She had experienced some devastating losses, though, and he was glad that he’d been able to be a positive influence in her life. And, if Chuck was honest with himself, he felt better after opening up to her, too. He needed a drink.
They sat on the couch in the cold house as the sun went down, the room starting to get dark. It had not snowed anymore that day but the temperatures had stayed well below freezing. Chuck reached into his backpack and pulled out his bottle of Evan Williams.
“Do you like bourbon?” he asked.
“No,” the petite girl answered, “these two beers are about my limit. I’m already feeling light-headed.”
McCain took a swig straight out of the bottle. “The problem with not having any power this time of year is that it’s dark at 6:00 in the afternoon. It’s too early for bed and there’s nothing on television.”
As the darkness settled in, Chuck stood and closed the living room curtains all the way. They had been open about a foot to let the light in. He had a couple more sips of the whiskey and put the cork back in the bottle, feeling much warmer.
“Can I have a sip?” Elizabeth asked.
“You sure?” he asked her.
“My teeth are chattering, I’m so cold. Maybe it’ll help me warm up.”
He handed her the bottle and leaned back on the sofa. Elizabeth coughed and cleared her throat after she sipped the whiskey. “That’s really strong,” she commented, tilting back the bottle for another drink.
“It is but it’s one of my favorite bourbons. I found it in that abandoned house where I had the run in with Greg and Tonya. I needed a drink after that, too.”
Chuck motioned for the whiskey and had another swallow. After a minute, he felt Elizabeth’s hand touch his arm. “Maybe just a little more,” she slurred, taking a deep drink, holding on to the neck of the bottle. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere tonight. Unless you want to take me out somewhere nice.”
McCain laughed. “Let’s survive the end of the world first. Maybe one day I can take you and Melanie out for dinner.”
“That would be nice,” Benton said, her voice slowing down. “I’d like to meet her.”
She handed the bottle back and Chuck closed it, setting it on the floor. After a few minutes, he felt Elizabeth getting to her feet. “I guess I should go and get some sleep since you’re going to turn me into a Marine tomorrow.”
As she stood, however, the room started spinning and she sat back down on the sofa. “Then again, I may be sleeping on the couch with you,” she said, giggling. “I told you I was a lightweight. Can I have a little more? After you get past that first swallow, it’s really good.”
Chuck handed her the bottle but said, “This is it, though. I’m cutting you off after this drink.”
She gave him the whiskey back and mumbled, “No problem, Mr. McCain, I don’t think I need any more bourbon tonight.”
Benton slid over on the sofa until she was right next to McCain and whispered, “It’s cold in that big bed by myself. Can I stay down here with you?”
“Uh, sure, I guess.” Chuck doubted the wisdom of this idea but realized they probably did need each other’s body heat in the cold house. “It’ll be tight on this couch but we’ll be warmer snuggling up.”
“Oh, warm and snuggly sounds nice,” Elizabeth replied, a bit tipsily, wrapping her arms around the big man. “I think I’d like to snuggle. I think I like to snuggle with you, Chuck.”
“Well,” McCain said, feeling uncomfortable, not sure where this conversation was heading, “you’re safe with me. I won’t do anything to you, but I don’t want to see either of us freeze to d
eath, either.”
“Maybe, I want you to do something to me,” Elizabeth said, playfully, pressing her body against his. “Maybe, I want to do something to you. Maybe, I want us to do something together.”
Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil, McCain prayed. How long had it been since he’d had a gorgeous young woman throw herself at him? He stretched out on the couch and let Elizabeth lay up against him. He wrapped the blanket around both of them.
When Chuck didn’t make a move to take advantage of her offer, Elizabeth mumbled, sounding disappointed, “It’s OK. I’m sure a big handsome man like you gets girls a lot prettier than me.”
How do I even respond to that? he wondered. “Beth, I don’t want to take advantage of you. Plus, I’m old enough to be your father.”
“But you’re not my father. Nobody ever calls me ‘Beth,’” she said, quietly, continuing to slur her words. “But it sounds sweet coming from you. I like it when you call me ‘Beth.’ That’s nice.”
Her head rested on his chest, with her body against his, and Chuck was already much warmer than he had been the previous night. Yep, it had been a long time since he’d had a beautiful girl resting against him. This is really not a good idea, he thought. Beth got quiet and McCain hoped that she’d fallen asleep.
“Nobody’s ever called me ‘Beth,’” she said again, after a few minutes. “But you’re not a nobody,” she slurred softly. “You’re a somebody. Chuck McCain, you are a somebody. You’re a hero. You’re a superhero. You’re my superhero.”
Chuck smiled, making a mental note not to offer Beth any more alcohol. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. But first, let me get you back to your friends at the college, safe and sound.”
“Right. You drop me off and then you ride off into the sunset like a superhero. I bet you forget about me by the next day.”
