by Mark Tufo
“Then all the more reason I should love this little guy even more,” Winke said, gently pressing Ben-Ben to the side of his face.
“I just don’t want to see you hurt,” Faye said tenderly.
“Oh, Faye, I have so little time left myself, I might as well enjoy every minute of it.”
“Don’t you talk like that!”
“Come on, Faye, you have to be realistic. Even with the chemo the doctors were only talking about another six months to a year, tops. Hell, I’m thrilled the zombies came when they did or all this would be gone,” Winke said, pulling on his impressively long face hair.
“I should have been so lucky,” she said, getting on her toes for a lip press. And they called dogs’ rituals weird. I scratched on the door.
“Well, hello, Riley,” Winke said, “At least you know where to go the bathroom,” he said as he looked playfully at Ben-Ben.
“What?” Faye asked. “Where?”
“I cleaned it up,” Winke said cheerily.
“I’ve seen the way you clean—where was it?”
Winke looked out the door viewer first then opened the door for me. “Stay close, I’ll be right back, Riley. I’m in a little trouble.” He winked.
He walked off to show Faye where Ben-Ben had his accident. Dumb dog still hadn’t figured it out. When I realized I was outside all alone in the early dark with zombies, I thought maybe he had figured it out after all. I was midway through my stream when I heard the clumsy sounding fall of feet as humans walked, but this was even clumsier. Zombies were close.
So far the dead two-leggers had shown no interest in eating dogs or, unfortunately, cats. But if I had the choice between a hamburger and dry dog food, I’d eat the ground up beef every time unless there was no more hamburger, then I’d eat whatever I could. How long would it be before there were no more two-leggers for the zombies to eat?
I wanted back in the house, but I didn’t want to alert the zombies to my presence. They didn’t yet sound like they were on a hunt, but merely trying to pick up a scent. I waited by the door, occasionally lightly scratching at it, hoping to get someone’s attention.
“Well, hello there, Riley!” Winke said much too loudly as he opened the door.
I ran straight into his tree-like legs when I heard the zombie footfalls become purposeful.
Winke bent down to rub his shins. “Let me know next time if I’m in your way.” He smiled.
I barked vociferously in his face, “Shut the door!”
“Whoa, girl, it’s alright,” he said, mistakenly thinking I was barking at him. He slowly stood up and then noticed the real threat. “Shit,” he said slamming the door shut just as a zombie banged into it.
The door rattled, it did not look very sturdy to me.
“What is all this racket?” Faye asked as she shuffled into the room.
Winke and I were looking at the backdoor. Light was beginning to filter in around the edges every time the zombie walked into it. All three of us were frozen right until the zombie broke the door viewer.
“Gonna need a gun, Faye,” Winke said, never taking his eyes off the door; I guess he was hoping if he kept willing it shut it would stay.
Ben-Ben came back with Faye who had a very small fire stick.
“Why are they at Santa’s house?” Ben-Ben asked.
Wood was splintering when Faye sent the metal bee flying. The zombie fell backward. Jessie was in the kitchen by the time the next one took its place.
“Give me the gun, Faye. Go out the front and get everyone over to Sean’s house,” Winke told his wife.
“I’m not leaving you here,” she told him.
“Faye, this door isn’t going to hold much longer, get them over there now. I’ll be right behind you.”
Faye was looking suspiciously at him.
“I’ll be right behind you—go!” he shouted as he let fly another metal bee.
I couldn’t see how many zombies there were, but when one fell another immediately took its place.
“Riley, come on,” Jessie said a moment later. Zach was in her arms and Patches was at her feet.
“I’ll watch out for the girl and the cub,” Patches said.
“Go!” I barked at them much like Winke had earlier. Jessie turned to leave at Faye’s urging. Ben-Ben came up beside me; it was good to have him.
“Nobody messes with Santa,” he told me seriously.
“You two along for the ride?” Winke asked.
A car ride right now sounded like dog heaven, but when we didn’t move I figured he meant something different. Humans were funny like that. Their words did not always equal their actions.
Winke fired a few more bees, then rushed over to one of the wooden food containers. He grabbed a box of bees and quickly placed some in the small stick. More wood had splintered while he wasn’t shooting, zombies would be inside soon. I hoped Jessie and Zach were at the neighbor’s and the cat had kept her word, might as well have asked a squirrel to give up some of its nuts.
The door swung in just as he started firing again, the lead zombie came to a halt mere whisker-lengths away from my muzzle. Winke kept firing until he ran out of bees. “That’s it, guys. That should have given them enough time, we have to go.”
Winke turned to leave. A zombie came running into the house at full speed. It was later I would remember that until this point all the zombies had been slow but right then I had to help save Santa.
The zombie ran into Winke’s back and he probably would have fallen backward from the impact with Winke but Winke’s foot got caught up in the food room’s chair. He fell over, with the zombie on top of him. Ben-Ben was there before me; he bit deeply into the zombie’s neck. The zombie was trying desperately to get through Winke’s fake skins.
“Ben-Ben, watch the door, I’ll get the zombie on Winke’s—I mean Santa’s back!”
Ben-Ben was reluctant to leave but when I grabbed the zombie’s leg and had him half off he went to the door, there wasn’t much he could do because of his height except trip the zombies up, but that was enough. Winke was scrambling to get up on his knees as I was pulling the zombie off. Winke screamed as he turned and laid a ham sized fist into the zombie’s nose. Winke got completely up as I dragged the zombie a little bit away from him.
“Let’s go,” Winke and I said almost in unison.
Ben-Ben was limping but he didn’t say anything as we ran for the front door. Winke held it open for us as we raced through. He slammed it shut as zombies poured into his living room. I saw Faye frantically waving and tapping a home viewer from across the yard. She looked scared, we were in agreement there. We were halfway to the house when we were seen by the hunters. Winke’s log legs were serving him well, he ran pretty good for a two-legger, Ben-Ben was having difficulty keeping up, I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him much like I would my young if I had had any.
“This is better than running!” Ben-Ben said, his tongue lolling and his tail wagging.
“Stay still,” I mumbled.
“Come on, you damn fool,” Faye said to Winke, urging him into the house.
Winke fell onto the floor and we were right behind him. Faye slammed the door shut as Jessie placed a large metal bar in place to secure the door. The door shook a little but it was in no threat of giving like Winke’s.
“I got bit!” Winke said. He lifted the blue fake skins on his leg.
“Are you sure?” Faye asked, getting down to get a closer look at it.
“I think I’d damned well know if I got bit,” Winke said.
Faye had a sharp intake of breath as she looked at the bite. She ran her finger over its outline. “Thank God it didn’t break skin.”
“You sure?” Winke asked.
“I think I’d damned well know if I saw blood,” Faye said, throwing his words back at him. “You fool, you could have got yourself killed.”
“It would have been worth it to be sure you made it. These two saved my life,” Winke said, grabbing Ben
-Ben and me. “These are some special dogs,” he told Jessie.
“I know,” she said, getting down to pet us.
“If it wasn’t for me they would never have made it over here,” Patches said indignantly. “I showed them how to walk quietly.”
“Now what?” Faye asked as she looked through the viewer to her domicile.
“Well, I guess this is home now,” Winke said as he got up and stood next to her. We could clearly hear things breaking and smashing across the way.
“Is this place any safer?” Jessie asked.
“This is a small fortress,” Winke said. “This was our neighbor, the survivalists’, home. We should have just moved in after… well, after they left.”
“You know I couldn’t,” Faye said. “That’s been our home for the last forty years. I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving our kids’ bedrooms, it would have been too final.”
“I know, Hon, I know,” Winke said, putting his arm around his wife. “We left most of their stuff here just usually came over and grabbed what we needed, kind of like a 7-11, I guess. I just always knew this day would come and it would be better to have everything here.”
“Come on, Faye,” Winke said leading his wife into the new food room. Sit—me and Jessie will get some breakfast going.”
“I’m staying with Santa, Riley,” Ben-Ben said.
The sadness wafted off Faye. I stayed with her.
Patches hopped up onto the ledge of the home viewer. “More zombies are coming,” she said.
My body shuddered; I hated the dead ones. Winke and Jessie came back a few moments later with their arms full of food boxes. “Faye, they have an indoor vented generator,” Winke said excitedly.
Faye didn’t respond.
“You know what that means, don’t you?” he asked. She still didn’t respond. “How does the idea of a hot shower sound?”
At least this time she looked up.
“Lights,” he said. That one word seemed to have a big effect as a grin spread on her face.
“I’ll be able to read at night?” she asked.
“Hell, you’ll even be able to plug in your e-reader.” He laughed.
“It’s at our house Winke,” she said resignedly. “And don’t you even think about going and getting it.”
“We’ll see,” he said as he pulled on his long face mane.
“Oh, a shower would be so nice.”
“Go take one. I’ll get some eats ready.
***
It was a few cycles of the burning disc before the zombies in Winke and Faye’s house left or at least figured how to get out. Winke told me we would wait one more day before we went back to get Faye’s stuff. Even then we would wait until she was asleep because if she knew he was going out she would kill him.
I didn’t think she would, but Winke was scared of her and that was good enough reason for me to wait also.
The wolf disc was shining bright the night Winke asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. I knew immediately what he was talking about. The house was quiet except for Faye’s snoring, which in its own way was a comforting sound.
Winke talked to me as he looked through the viewer. “It’s Christmas Eve and I want to get my wife something special. You ready, girl?”
I was. I had kind of hoped Ben-Ben was coming, the little dog had proved himself over and over in battle and not having him along by my side was slightly disturbing. But I understood it; the big man considered Ben-Ben like a child cub and would not put him in danger.
“I’m coming too,” Patches said as she rushed out the door before Winke could stop her.
“Patches,” Winke said softly. “Come back here, you’ll get me in trouble with Jessie.”
Patches was already heading for the other house. “Well, at least she’s going the right way,” Winke said as he looked both ways and stepped out. He had a very large fire stick with him and for that I was thankful.
“Oh, it stinks over here,” Patches said as she rounded the corner to get to the back of Winke’s house.
“Did you stream over there?” I asked.
“Funny, no it’s the dead zombies,” she said as Winke and I came up behind her.
“Well, they definitely don’t bury their dead or eat them. I was wondering if they would or not. Too bad about that, we’d be able to get rid of them a lot quicker if they started to take bites out of each other,” Winke said as he prodded it with his stick.
After a while of nothing happening he carefully stepped over it and into the house. The smell outside was nothing compared to what assailed us from the inside. Winke had to step back out, he took a smaller piece of fake skin from the pouch of the skins he was wearing and wrapped it around his face. I wondered if that would work for me. I waited by the door for him, partly because I didn’t want to go in, either. Patches strolled in, seemingly unaffected.
“Wooo, if it wasn’t Christmas Eve I wouldn’t be doing this,” Winke said.
“He shouldn’t be doing this at all,” Patches said to me.
I had to agree, if only because of the smell, not even including the danger. I heard something rustling on the far side of the house but I noticed most, if not all the outside viewers were broken and I could see the material covering them was moving back and forth and that easily could have been the source of the sound.
“Hard to believe this was my house for so many years, doesn’t even look the same,” Winke said with a choked voice.
Home was where my food bowl was, I thought. I wanted out of this place, it smelled worse than death. Death has an earthy naturalness to it, none of that was here. Broken clear viewer pieces crumbled under Winke’s feet as he stepped farther in, I was careful to avoid the twinkling bits.
“Seems empty, girl,” Winke said, I think to calm me, but more probably to soothe himself.
We walked farther in and then off to the right we went down the dark skinny room to the room Winke and Faye rested. I heard something move, but it sounded no louder than a mouse or maybe a rat. I had not seen the sharp-toothed ones eat any of the zombies yet but wherever there was a free meal they would follow shortly.
Patches came up behind me. “Nothing in the kitchen,” she said.
“Did you hear the rat?” I asked her. Thinking she’d be curious and maybe go kill it. She shook her head. “You going to check it out?” I asked. She again shook her head. Whatever I was picking up on, so was she. I gently gripped the bottom of Winke’s fake skins, halting his progress.
“You don’t like this, either?” he asked me. “We’ll be out in a minute.” Whatever a minute was I thought it was too long.
We finally came to the end of the skinny room and into the room of rest. It made the destruction in the house pale in comparison. A pack of rabid hippos couldn’t have destroyed this room as thoroughly, I thought.
“I can’t even see her nightstand—how am I going to find her ereader?” Winke asked.
Nightstand and ereader were both new words to me; I was not going to be of any help. Patches went to the far side of the room where there seemed a path to walk in. Winke seemed about to follow her when he spotted something on our side.
“I think that’s her stand, I see reading glasses!” Winke said triumphantly.
I looked back down the dark long room something wasn’t right but I couldn’t sense it properly, the abundance of smell had me off balance. Then Winke screamed. Patches came hurdling over the turned over human resting pad. I thought heading for the door but she was heading for Winke. Winke was still cursing as he pulled his leg free from something I could not see from my vantage point. I could smell his blood and even in the soft light I could see it staining his fake skins.
“Zombie!” Patches yelled. She had her sharp claws out and was attacking. I rounded a broken large wooden piece humans put their fake skins in. Trapped underneath the debris was a zombie, its cloudy eyes were fixed on Winke, its mouth was crimson with the blood of Winke. Patches raked claws across its eye, it would never see out t
hat side again, not that that would be a problem for long. Winke urged the cat away as he placed the fire stick up against the zombie’s head and pulled the trigger. The smoke from the stick was still swirling in the air when I began to hear properly again. I was waiting for either more zombies or Faye to start screaming, nothing happened.
“You alright, Cat?” I asked.
“I am, but the human is dead,” she responded.
“He’s fine, there’s not enough blood to be a problem. He’ll put one of those sticky skins on it,” I told her. Cats were always expecting the worst.
“You don’t know anything, Dog,” Patches said as she left the room.
Winke grabbed a chair and sat it upright; he then sat down so he could pull up his fake skins. “Well, it got me,” he said, looking at the wound. He grabbed some fake skins out of the broken furniture to wipe the blood away; he then tied it around his leg.
“See, Cat!” I yelled. “You can barely see it.”
“Shh, Riley. I don’t want to wake the missus,” Winke said.
“If she didn’t hear the fire stick, she didn’t hear me,” I told him, quieter.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said as he leaned over. He grabbed something that looked much like the books Jessie used to read only thinner, then leaned over again and came up with a small leash the humans put into the wall that seemed to keep their devices from walking away.
“I found it, Riley. I guess that makes it sort of worthwhile. I wonder how much time I have left?”
I cocked my head to the side; I didn’t know what he was talking about. Did he hear the cat?
He sat there a long time, sometimes his head between his hands, sometimes his hands were clasped together and he was mumbling with his face upturned but mostly he was silent. We stayed that way for a long time until the disc began to again brighten the darkness.
“So far, so good, girl,” Winke said to me. “Let’s go celebrate Christmas.”
“Where have you been?” Faye asked as she met us at the door.
I scooted by Winke, to smell bacon after what was in his other house was too much.
“I had to get you a gift!” Winke said enthusiastically. “Merry Christmas!” Winke handed her the thin book with the leash.
