Asylum (4 page)

It was only when Jarvis had almost died from alcohol
poisoning after a particularly hard night of partying that he’d
come to realize that the booze didn’t love him back. He’d broken
things off, but the desire for the drink wasn’t so easy to fade. He
thirsted for it the way a suffocating man thirsts for air. He hoped
it would get easier the more time that passed, but the wounds of
the breakup were still fresh, and some days he found himself
driving out of his way to pass liquor stores, as if he were
stalking the booze.

“
Are you okay?” Madam Diva asked,
coming up next to Jarvis and placing a hand on his
shoulder.

Jarvis smiled. Diva knew about his problem, which
was the only reason he’d agreed to work as a stripper here at
Asylum. He knew she’d keep him away from the drink. “Temptation’s
great, but I’m maintaining.”

“
Good boy.”

“
I think I’m just going to go
somewhere away from the bar.”

Diva turned her head to scan the
small club. “Well, there’s only so much
away
in this place.”

Jarvis laughed, cast another longing glance at the
bottles behind the bar, and headed toward the restrooms. He knew it
was probably exacerbating matters to be working at a club where the
alcohol flowed so freely, but he needed the extra cash. Even with
his Associate’s degree in Computer Technology, he found it
impossible to find a job as an I/T guy. The drink had permanently
tarnished his reputation after he’d shown up to work wasted and
destroyed several hundred dollars’ worth of equipment. His former
employer had agreed to let Jarvis pay off what he owed in
installments, which kept him out of jail but made his financial
situation even direr. The only job he could get was as a bookseller
at a Books-A-Million, which barely paid enough for him to make ends
meet. The money he got dancing at Asylum was all that was keeping
him afloat. Those dollars stuffed in his G-string really added
up.

Jarvis pushed open the swinging
door and walked into the men’s room. He didn’t need to go, he just
wanted to put some distance between him and the booze. Even when
the door swung shut behind him, he could still hear the alcohol
whispering to him in a low, seductive voice. “
Jarvis
,” it seemed to say,
“
just one drink won’t hurt. You deserve it
with all the shit that’s going on. It’ll take the edge off, calm
you down enough to figure things out
.”
Jarvis knew it was all lies, but sometimes he wanted to be lied
to.

He wasn’t alone in the men’s room. The couple that
had started all this—Curtis and Jimmy he believed their names
were—were by one of the sinks. Jimmy was still out of it, hunched
over and mumbling to himself while Curtis pressed a moistened wad
of paper towels to the back of Jimmy’s neck. A red stain had
blossomed on the paper towel, petals of blood spreading.

“
Is he okay?” Jarvis asked,
stepping up to one of the other sinks and splashing water on his
face.

Curtis smiled and looked away. “Yeah, he just got
cut on some glass when we were outside.”

“
Is it bad?”

“
It’s bleeding a lot, but it
doesn’t seem that deep. He should be okay. Physically, at
least.”

Jarvis nodded. “So, do you really believe those are
zombies outside?”

He noticed Curtis flinch as if
he’d been sucker-punched. “Yes, I do. Trust me, I don’t
want
to believe it. I’d
love to convince myself I’m crazy, or maybe somebody slipped some
hallucinogenic drug in my drink earlier and I was just imagining
the whole thing. The last thing I want to believe is that we’re in
some queer version of
Night of the Living
Dead
, but like the bartender out there
said: I know what I know.”

“
Well, I’ve known Gil for a little
while now, and he always shoots it straight. I’ve never seen him
frightened before, not even the night a bunch of straight bikers
showed up and wanted to start some trouble. But he certainly lost
his cool tonight.”

“
You would have too if you’d seen
what’s outside those doors.”

A shiver suddenly worked its way through Jarvis’s
body, causing goose bumps to rise on his skin. He folded his arms
across his chest, becoming self-consciously aware of the fact that
he was practically naked.

“
Are you cold?” Curtis asked. “Do
you want my jacket?”

Jarvis hesitated for only a second. “Well, if you’re
offering, that would be lovely, thanks.”

“
Don’t mention it.” Curtis removed
his jacket and handed it to Jarvis. “Don’t you have anything else
to wear?”

“
My clothes are in the booth out
in the hall. I don’t think I’ll be getting to them anytime
soon.”

“
Well, you can keep my jacket as
long as you need.”

“
Smashing ensemble, don’t you
think?” Jarvis said with a laugh, looking down at himself. He
looked ridiculous in only a light windbreaker and his G-string
thong.

“
Looks okay to me,” Curtis said
then blushed, obviously tearing his eyes away from Jarvis’s package
with great effort. Jarvis had a sudden revelation and thought the
boy practically had the word “VIRGIN” tattooed on his
forehead.

“
I dance here every Friday and
Saturday night. Your friend looks familiar, but I don’t remember
ever having seen you before.”

“
Oh, tonight was my first
night here. My first night
anywhere
, really.”

“
How old are you?”

“
Twenty.”

“
And you’ve
never
been to a gay club
before?”

Curtis smiled shyly, ducking his head down. “I’ve
led kind of a sheltered life, I guess.”

“
Nothing wrong with that.
Sometimes I think I’d be better off if my life had been a little
more sheltered.”

“
Maybe we could switch lives
sometime, although I doubt I’d look as good in that outfit as you
do.”

Jarvis and Curtis shared a laugh
then stood just staring at one another. The moment drew out,
something passing between them. Jarvis wasn’t sure what it was—this
shy boy with his innocence and naïveté wasn’t at all the type
Jarvis was usually attracted to—but it was
something.
The moment was broken
when Jimmy suddenly looked up and said, “Why don’t you two get a
room?”

“
Jimmy,” Curtis said, taking his
friend by the head and looking him in the eyes. “Are you
back?”

“
Guess I was sort of gone there
for a bit there, wasn’t I? It’s not every day you see the guy you
were just going down on get his insides ripped out. I needed a
little time to process it all.”

“
How do you process something like
that?” Jarvis asked.

“
With lots and lots of alcohol. I
need a drink, several of them.”

“
Here, let me help you,” Curtis
said, offering his shoulder for Jimmy to lean on. The boy with the
wild blonde hair still seemed disoriented, though lucid, and he
allowed his friend to help him along.

As the two passed by Jarvis, Jimmy reached out,
slapped the stripper on the ass, and said, “Don’t worry, big guy,
we’re not a couple.”

Curtis blushed again. “Jimmy, please don’t embarrass
me.”

“
I’m just being a good friend.
Even during the Apocalypse, I’m still trying to get you
laid.”

“
I think I liked it better when
you were catatonic.”

Jarvis watched the two exit the bathroom, smiling to
himself. He was intrigued by Curtis, and realized that for the
duration of their conversation, he had forgotten all about the
zombies outside and his desire for a drink.

Madam Diva sat an entire bottle of vodka in front of
Jimmy and said, “On the house,” with a wink.

Jimmy took two glasses and started to pour, but
Curtis put a hand over his and said, “None for me.”

“
Dude, you need to get over your
Puritan tendencies. If ever there was a time to get staggeringly
drunk, now is that time.”

“
I just think it’s important to
keep our heads clear so we can figure a way out of this
mess.”

“
The dead have arisen. I think
logic and clear-headedness have pretty much flown out the
window.”

“
I read this book one time,”
Autumn said suddenly, “it was about zombies taking over the
world.”

“
Autumn, not now,” Lance snapped.
The two were sitting on the floor with their backs to the
wall.

“
Let her talk if she wants,” Gil
said from where he was standing guard by the front entrance. His
words came out as more of a command than a suggestion.

Autumn smiled at the bartender. “In the book, the
zombies were actually demons that had inhabited the bodies of the
recently dead. They were methodically clearing the planet of all
life to make room for hell on Earth.”

Lance snorted a derisive laugh. “That’s
ridiculous.”

“
It was a pretty successful book
from what I remember. Had a sequel.”

“
What happened?” Curtis asked.
“What happened at the end of the books?”

Autumn hesitated before saying, “Everybody
died.”

“
Oh, that’s just great, Autumn,”
Lance said, his voice rising. “Thanks for the pep talk, it really
helped morale.”

“
Shut up,” Gil said. His voice was
not loud but it carried a certain ring of authority that instantly
made Lance do what he was told.

The pounding at both doors continued unabated.
Curtis didn’t know if these zombies were demons wearing dead bodies
like hand-me-down clothing or not, but they were certainly
persistent. He wondered if their numbers were continuing to swell.
Even with the makeshift barricades, it was only a matter of time
before they beat their way into the club, but he forced himself not
to think about it.

“
I’m going to go check on Devon,”
Diva said. Earlier the balding man had retreated upstairs, saying
he wanted to be alone. He hadn’t come down since. Diva hurried up
the stairs, calling the man’s name.

Curtis turned to the mismatched couple—tall, skinny
Clive and short, pudgy Toby—sitting at the far end of the bar near
the dance floor. Toby had his cell phone to his ear. He’d been
trying 911 every five minutes. So far he hadn’t managed to get back
through to anyone.

“
So,” Curtis said, wanting
to hear his own voice to keep his thoughts at bay, “are you
guys
together
?”

Clive smiled and put his arm around Toby, kissing
the shorter man on the temple. “Yeah, four years now.”

“
I don’t know how I’ve managed to
put up with you for so long,” Toby said with a lopsided
grin.

“
What do you guys do?”

“
I’m a writer,” Clive said with
just a touch of snobbishness. “Toby here is a documentary
filmmaker.”

“
Actually, I’m a waiter who has
been begging, borrowing, and stealing money for the past three
years trying to finish my documentary.”

“
What’s it about?”

“
The desexualization of
homosexuals in the media. People make a big deal about how gays are
more represented these days in the movies and on television, but
with the exception of that Showtime program where all the guys did
was fuck, gay characters tend to be conspicuously asexual. We’re
portrayed as clowns and buffoons with no libido and…and I’ve gotten
up on my soapbox again, haven’t I?”

“
Yes, you certainly have,” Clive
said. “But it’s your passion I fell in love with.”

“
You should dump that idea,” Jimmy
said, drinking vodka straight from the bottle. “Sounds like a
snoozer to me. You want an exciting topic for your documentary?
Well, look right outside these doors, my friend. Homophobia among
the undead.”

Jimmy laughed, but he was the only one. Curtis
thought everyone was trying hard to forget what was happening
outside, but Jimmy brought it all crashing down like a lead
weight.

“
The operator said it was
happening everywhere,” Toby said, fingering his phone
again.

“
Maybe we’re all that’s left, so I
say we party right up ‘til the end.” Jimmy chugged the
vodka.

“
How about you share some of
that?” Lance said.

Jimmy crossed over to where Lance and Autumn sat
against the wall. He held out the bottle but snatched it away as
Lance reached for it. “What’ll you give me for it?”

Lance stared up at him, and a smile slowly spread
across his face. “What do you want?”

“
Let’s negotiate,” Jimmy said,
sitting down close to Lance.

Typical
,
Curtis thought.
Even in a situation like
this, all Jimmy can think about it sex
.

Of course, Curtis’s mind kept turning toward Jarvis,
and every time he thought about that chiseled body, Curtis found
himself stiffening. Like now.

“
So what do you do?” Clive
asked.

“
Jimmy and I are still in
school.”

“
What are you
studying?”

Curtis opened his mouth to answer, and that was when
the lights went out.