A Very Good Man (38 page)

  Giving a half wave he turned and started walking. At least he hadn't been hurt this time, which made a pleasant change. His boots, black and formerly owned by someone who'd been wearing a police uniform that had a name tag that said “Thomson” on it fit well and didn't rub through the thick socks. It had gotten cool outside finally. He'd picked up a lot of clothing and coats too, in his scavenging, figuring that bundling up was better than freezing if he had to go hunt or collect wood in the snow. He'd walked for nearly half a mile before he realized that Tammy was following him.

  Jake gave her a look, eyebrows raised.

  After all, they'd seemed to have forgiven her back there, why should she be following him around? Plus, how the hell had she been following him for that long without him knowing it? Secret ninja skills or something? It was like her feet didn't make any noise on the ground. Jake's did and he was trying to be quiet.

  She didn't say anything or even look up. Well, whatever. He didn't have a high opinion of her, but she could help with Burt. Unless she was the killer. He doubted it, but he'd keep an eye out just in case. The idea that a girl, woman really, couldn't be a killer was ridiculous.

   Maybe he could get her to work? Those apples and walnuts to start. Whatever else they could find before it all died or started to rot. If she wouldn't work, then he could kick her out. Possibly at night. It seemed to him that she'd voted for him to leave. It made the current situation a little ironic. Or maybe not, if she managed to fit in at his place. After all, that vote led to him finding something else, didn't it? Things were better for him now. Maybe they would be for her too? If she wanted it. Jake wouldn't even hold her to her promise of sex, since that was obviously just her trying to live, not an actual offer.

  Then they walked as he talked finally, going over what he did, what he had planned and the preparations he already had. Jake even covered the sex stuff. Oh, it would be nice if she'd put out, but really, he got it. She didn't say anything, but her body posture suddenly looked more relaxed. Then he covered what he'd managed so far, just to talk. It was one of the things he missed about having other people around. Talking.

  “So a lot of meat. We can eat all winter, I mean, if you want to hang out with me, but the work can't really stop, because I got such a late start. But... Look, I don't really know you, so I'll just say this... Pull your weight and if you want to be on my team, be on my team. Full out, all the time. Got it? You can turn and go back right now. None of those people is a killer except Dave and you've lived with him for months. Heck he's thirteen, throw him a couple hand jobs or flash your breasts at him and he'll probably be your best friend for life. They'll take you, if you go back.”

  She shook her head.

  “I... haven't done well so far. I was kind of a spoiled bitch before and I let that mindset keep going. This might work better for me. I know you'll kill me if I fuck up too much. I can leave and maybe have a fall-back there if I can't hack it. Could be worse. At least you bother to bathe regularly. It makes going down on a guy way more fun.” She walked with her face hidden behind her hair.

  Jake blushed then. His face actually grew warm. She actually intended to do things with him? After he said she didn't have too? That was... Not very believable, was it? He kept listening, but with a bit more wariness now for some reason.

  “Clint was spotty that way at best, I wasn't looking forward to mid-winter that place is going to reek with all those unwashed bodies that close.” She sniffed and giggled, sounding younger than her squarish face looked.

  She had to be in her thirties. Not that it mattered now. Life span was measured in how long you lasted after the announcement, not how long you'd lived before. The rest was just window dressing. Hair, clothes, looks. They mattered, but a lot less than a warm house and food. And bathing apparently. That one was real enough.

  “Well, I have a tub and a water heater, enough for a full bath, two even if we share the water. I mean half a bath full each, not at the same time. It doesn't have a direct pump yet and the one I made kind of sucks, but we have Burt at my place, so we can see if he can give us some hints? I doubt we can manage a windmill yet, but I have a tank that we can use to make a cistern, you know, raise it up and feed it in to the house so there will be running water inside? It will suck pumping it in the winter, but we can only do what we can. If I can find some good hand tools I could do a lot more. I haven't found any yet.”        

  Something made Jake tense just a bit as he spoke, some bit of body movement that didn't belong in the woman following him. It was silent. Totally so, no rustle of clothing, no sound of air passing around her. It spoke of dead things to Jake's mind.
      The knife she had hidden on her, near the back of her jeans, swung effortlessly at his back. The move had a smooth and practiced feel that kind of looked pretty. He saw it, the last half of it as he turned and shot her in the throat. He wanted to roll his eyes at her, but didn't, she gasped and stared at him instead. He didn't shoot her twice, since he'd wasted twelve bullets that day already. Instead he stood and waited for her to die. It took a while, so he chatted with her for a bit.

  “You know, you could have just gone along with me and tried that in my sleep. Isn't that the way you've all been doing it? Or stayed at the house with the others. Really, I'm not sure what your point was here at all. Just to make my day a little less bright? And here I thought we were going to be friends. Anyway, mind if I borrow your knife to behead you?” She gasped at him, a low gurgle. Bubbly with a hint of red foam from both the hole in her neck and her mouth, so he'd hit the air way. That meant she got to drown in her own blood. That sounded sucky. Her deep purple tank top was getting red and her shoes were too little for him, but might fit Sammi or someone else, so he started to take them off of her. She wet her pants then, which got him to laugh.

  “Relax, I'm just stealing your stuff. I may want to get laid, but we're at least half a year before I'm so desperate I'd try a dying woman. Too bad though, that you had to attack like this. No matter how bad I turn out to be in bed, it almost has to have been a better option than this. Or, you know, you could have just gone back. Really, not trying to be a dick here, but almost anything you could have done would have worked better, you know that? Well, you're almost done now. Have anything to say?”

  She mouthed some words, they were familiar enough that he got it, even though no sound came from her mouth.

  “Fuck you.”

  He smiled and waited, knowing that would be the last things she'd see. Then he took her head off and walked to his house for a shovel. After the burying was done he went back and explained everything to Sammi and Burt. Leaving in the part where Tammy offered herself to him. Probably not appropriate for a child, but Sammi didn't seem to mind overly. Lots of people had sex at the house, even with her in the room. They kind of had to given the way things were set up. Innocently enough she went into a fairly long story about how loud Heather and Randy got.

  Regularly.

  Jake just nodded and tried not to be angry at Sammi about that. She didn't know about the rest of things after all, did she? Not unless Heather had told her.

  Burt did and he tried to shush the girl several times, but nothing came out. Not loud enough to get her attention. A low hiss that could have been confused with his breathing. Except it wasn't. Sammi smiled at him and grinned.

  “People were throwing their pillows at them, because you know, we can't yell, right? This was after you were gone, but everyone still tried to follow that rule. Dave said he'd shoot anyone that broke it, but then they voted his gun rights away, so he couldn't fight them. Without a weapon he's just like me and Ken, a kid, isn't he? Until he got it back. Shot Bill in the head you say? I'll have to send him a thank you note. That's only polite after all, when someone does you a good turn.”

  She winked at him and tucked Burt's blankets in around him a little tighter then went to make a stew, without hesitating she went outside and collected up some things, taking about ten minutes, some roots, wild garlic and a few other things that she washed in a bucket of water and then cut up, describing what she did to him carefully. He paid close attention to the plants. These had been growing outside and he'd never even realized they were there. Bits of green that he didn't know how to use, before. The girl just chattered softly, an almost sing song thing, it was relaxing and it didn't require a lot from him, just occasional agreement or sound indicating he listened, which he did.

  She served him stew and fed some to Burt, making sure he drank enough water. The man could get up to go to the bathroom, if he was careful, he assured them both, but Sammi told him to not be silly about the food and gave him half spoonfuls at a time until it was gone. Then she waited a bit and made him more even though he said that it was enough.

  “Hmmph. There's food here for four or five people all winter Burt, even if they eat well, and you need extra protein to heal. We've all been short for a while. It isn't anything we've thought about, having had so little for so long, it seems like we have enough now, but it isn't enough in a case like this.” She kept working the whole time she spoke, her voice matter of fact, telling them both that they better not argue with her without saying the words.

  Jake didn't try to pay attention to her, she wasn't an enemy after all, but he did notice that she didn't eat. She took a tiny bowl of stew and pushed it around only pretending to. Maybe she didn't like the stew? She'd made it and no one was all that picky anymore. He felt fine, so it probably wasn't poisoned.

  That nearly got a laugh from him, the thought that he was seriously wondering if the eleven year old girl was trying to poison him. But a five year old with a gun pointed at a zombie's head could take them out, so why not an older girl armed with a bowl of stew. Why though? They always seemed to get along pretty well. At any rate, he felt fine. Maybe it was a slow thing? Wake up with a knife in his chest or something after sleeping too deep? It was what Tammy should have done, really.

  They chattered until after dark, which presented a problem. Not that big of one, she was a kid, but a girl too and had recently dealt with a pedo trying to screw her. He just gave her his bed, set up to the side of the kitchen and grabbed some extra bedding, using the “third” bedroom. It wasn't a proper room at all, just a little space with a bed taken from upstairs in it. Meant to be a closet or storage pantry. He couldn't see anything, so he made a kind of wadded up nest in the middle of the queen sized bed, with a few pillows for support. Not perfect, but he'd slept on worse. Recently even.

  Early the next morning he got up just before the dawn, habit by now, and noticed that Sammi wasn't in the bed or the bathroom, instead he found her in Burt's room. The man flat on his back, his shirt up and pants pulled down enough to show a flat, white, expanse of flesh. What he saw didn't make sense. At first he though she was doing something sexual from the way her head moved, but after a few seconds, unable to tear his eyes away, he figured it out. She wasn't going down on the guy, thank god.

  She just had his bandages off and was delicately licking his wounds. Slowly. Languorously.

  Ick.

  After a few minutes of this she slipped the bandages back on and adjusted the clothing, the bedding and her own shirt which had shifted up a little, which, as Jake knew, was annoying. Clothing just didn't fit right anymore. Not even your own. They'd all gotten too skinny for everything they had.

  When she turned her eyes caught the early light from the window, glowing like a cat's, a green reflection that didn't go away and wasn't a trick of his imagination. Ah. Well, that was strange.

  Then what wasn't anymore?

  Jake gestured to her and turned, walking outside. The girl followed, stiffly.