Dead Man Running (22 page)

"My family has a long history with men like the congressman.
  Centuries.
"  She chose her words carefully, which pleased Elias. 

True, he wasn't concerned about the surrounding human ears, but electronic ones were a different story.  
Major meeting place like this,
it was fifty-fifty that it was
bugged.  The CIA
or NYPD
could be listening to every word.

"There is a potion
discovered long ago that
reanimates the
undead
individual,
reigniting his
mental acumen and
physical
dexterity
."

Elias nodded.  They could be talking about the latest health drink.

"He seems better than before."

Mira raised an eyebrow, nodded.  "I am somewhat surprised at his abilities."  That was an understatement: she was stunned.  She had never seen a revitalized zombie so capable, perfect even.

"
Hamid
's
your
grand
father?"

"
Yes, he is my grandfather and the
head of our family."

"Why did you give our friend this potion of yours?"

"Miss Sugerfoot asked for my grandfather's help."

Elias smiled.  "And he just gave it up?  What's in it for him, for you?"

The woman leaned back.  "My grandfather determined it to be in our family's interest."

"How so?"

"It is always best to stay close to the powerful."
 

Elias nodded, understood her meaning.  He took a long pull on his beer.  "So, you're here to stay?"  The thought did not displease him. 

"Of course, Elias.  I will be Ben's chief of staff once he assumes his new role."  She drained her glass and got to her feet.  "Want another?" she asked a
s
she looked Elias in the eyes.
  Elias nodded and she walked over to the bar.  She disappeared quickly into the surrounding mob.

While she was gone he considered what she had said.  She and
Hamid
must come from a long line of magicians.  Is the
correct
term 'witches and warlocks'?  What was their interest?  Did their potion give them control of Wiley?  Was Wiley really a puppet, speaking
Hamid
's, perhaps
Mira
's, words?  He needed to know, especially if one day he had to stop Wiley, stop a zombie from waltzing into the White House.

Mira
returned with their drinks.  His was another light beer, hers a concoction with green and red tiers.  She noticed him staring and said "It's a Jager Bomb" as she sat.

She took a sip, crossed her legs and once again her eyes drilled into his.

"You don't like real drinks," he said as he accepted the beer.

"I like variety, never the same thing twice," she said.

"You never had a Cosmo before?"

"Never."

"And you'll never have another one?"

"Not if I can help it.  There are too many drinks to try and not enough time."  She smiled
, reached under the table to rub his thigh.  H
e felt himself stiffen in his boxers.

"I have a question
,
"
she said.

Elias took a pull on the new, ice cold beer.  It felt good going down.  "Go ahead," he said.

"Things could have gone badly tonight."

He nodded. 
Gone badly? 
I could have been eaten alive!
  The woman had a gift for understatement.

"Yet you decided to remain part of the team, so to speak.  Why?"

He felt comfortable enough to be at least partially honest.  A veteran of the political game, honesty usually came several years and several campaigns down the road.

"Greed.  An utterly naked and unbound desire for political power."

"Did you have any misgivings about our man's stated goal?"

Elias hesitated, his eyes flicked from
Mira
's face to the table top and back.  "Not at the moment," he said
.  It was
another honest answer. 
That was two in a row – a new record for the man. 

What was this bitch doing to
me
?

He felt something building inside him
– a tiny flame of misgivings and doubt.  B
ut this evening, when he learned that he was destined to be a MOC, his
unbridled j
oy caused
that flame to quickly extinguish
.

"And you?  Does it give you pause?"

She drained her strange drink.  Her eyes never wavered from his.  "No," she said.  "Our man's interest currently coincide
s
with my family's interests.  I have no concern."

She stood, took her coat off the back of her chair.
  "Elias, you'll find me very direct.  I go for what I want."  She placed her palms on the small table, leaned into his face.  She kissed him on the lips, leaned back slightly.  "Now, if you're done with your boring drink, I want to go back to your place.  You've been eyeing my breasts all night."  This
was
overheard and a nearby older black woman's eyes went from
Mira
to Elias and back again.  A smile crossed her wide lips and she hovered close, waiting to hear more.

Mira
met the woman's eyes and matched her smile.  "I want to give you a much better look," she added.  Elias was stunned but not too stunned to move.  He abandoned his beer, grabbed his suit jacket
then
Mira
's hand a
s
he led her out of the crowded bar.

Jan spied the heifer as their limo rounded the corner onto Wiley's block. 
Sh
e saw the pink clad legs peeking underneath the black coat, the fabric of the coat stretched tight over the double plus sized frame.  The car came to a stop in front of the brownstone and the woman waved at the car.  She smiled,
likely one of the last of her pathetic life
, Jan thought.

Jan grabbed the door handle, prepared to exit but Wiley
laid
a hand on her arm.  She met his eyes and, for a brief moment she was afraid.  There was something in those dead orbs that frightened her, deep inside, at a level she was only faintly aware of –
fear
triggered by instincts dormant since the dawn of man.

"Do you want to tell me what is going on?" she asked.

"I want you to go home," he said.

"I – I thought this was my home?  Our home," she said.  She fought to master her emotions – not so much jealously but naked anger. 

Imagine this nigger kicking me to the curb after all I did for him.

Wily looked at the driver in the mirror and the driver exited the vehicle.  He closed the door and they were alone with Mookie. 
Mookie's eyes tracked the heavyset woman mercilessly.

"I do not want you to be a party to this any longer.  This woman is dinner, nothing more."

"But I've helped you with this type thing in the past.  It doesn't bother me."

"But it bothers me," said Wiley.  "I don't want you to see me like some type of animal.
  Not anymore.
"

Jan took his hand, the glimmer of fear gone.  "I don't feel that way about you.  I love you."

Wiley took her face in his large, cold hands.  He kissed her.  "I appreciate all that you have done for me, Jan.  You believed in me when no one else did.  We will do great things together."

Jan smiled, kissed him back.  "Yes, we will," she said.

He pulled back.  "But not this."  He nodded toward Mookie.  "
This
barbaric act,
he and I
do alone."

She tried to speak again but he silenced her with a look.  The fear crept back again, which confused her. 
She just said she loved him but she's
also
afraid of him?

Wiley exited the car, spoke to the driver and soon Jan was travelling away from the Wiley brownstone.  The last thing she saw as the car left the block was Ben Wiley placing both arms around the woman, an impressive task given her girth, and hugging the poor soul. 

As she
rode
home she imagined that Wiley wasn't really hugging the woman.  He was probably just getting a sense of the amount of food he and Mookie would have to consume. 

She deserves to die
, thought Jan.   She
quickly
flushed the woman out of her mind. 

Instead she filled
her imagination
with thoughts of being a second Michelle Obama.  Unlike the first black First Lady, Jan would not choose obesity as her cause. 

Fat people were so very important to keep around for her husband and those of his kind.

Tamesha Holloway bathed and donned her pajamas for bed.  She adjusted her alarm clock, started her music player and left her bedroom.  She would hug her grandmother good night, their evening ritual since the first day that her drug addled mother abandoned Tamesha to her care. 

She found Granny T in their kitchen.  The woman was on her hands and knees in front of the cabinet below the sink.  To her right and left were various cleaning supplies that had been piled in the space.

Tamesha stood in the doorway and said nothing.  Her grandmother sprayed 409 and wiped the cabinet clean with several paper towels.  Task completed, Granny T stood and dropped the soiled paper towels in the trash.  She turned to face Tamesha.  "Come here child," she said.

Tamesha approached her grandmother and the woman met her with open arms.  She held Tamesha as tightly as she could.  Finally, she let the child go.  She pointed a hand that smelled of disinfectant toward the cabinet underneath the sink.  "That be your place," she said.

"My place, Granny T?"

"Yes um, that be your place.  Once we know the zombies come to this here building, in you go.  You hide here child."

Tamesha bent down and peered into the space.  She would just about fit inside.  It occurred to her quickly that there was no room for her grandmother.

"Why can't we go someplace where we can both fit, Granny T?"

The woman shook her head.  "Cause Granny T already seen her demise, child.  God done writ my name in His book.  But I sees that you gonna make it.  And I'm His instrument to make sure that happen."

Tamesha nodded.  She knew not to argue about God's plan for her.  She hugged her grandmother again.

"What's gonna happen to me Granny T?"

"You gonna hide in this space, then you gonna get saved," she explained.

"How will I get saved?"

Eldina Thomas paused, played back her vision in her mind's eye.  "I see a man helping you."

"What man?  Who is he?"

The woman shrugged because she didn't know.  All she knew was that Tamesha would be safe if she hid when they was coming.  And she knew they were on their way.

She led her granddaughter back to her bedroom and tucked the child in.  She kissed Tamesha on the forehead and left her room.

After finding places for the displaced cleaning supplies she got herself ready for bed.  In her bedroom she got on her knees.  She prayed to her god – as she had done every night since her first visions of the undead arrived in her conscious mind.  She prayed for Tamesha's safety.  After an hour of supplication, she went to sleep.

Her sleep was uneasy because she knew more than ever that the undead would arrive soon.

Elias did get a better look – perfect breasts
the size of a large man's fists
with surprisingly dark, thick areolas.  They made
it
inside his condo, barely.  They
screwed like animals
on his hardwood floor, their bodies
c
ushioned by
neither pillow nor
throw rug. 
They felt no discomfort, only bliss. 

Sweaty
,
they gradually moved the action to Elias' king sized bed.

After going after each other
for hours
they fell asleep.

The next morning Elias woke alone.  He stumbled out of bed and quickly made a tour of his place.  He was
truly
alone. 
And h
e was slightly taken aback – usually he had to kick women out of his bed, out of his place.  They never left on their own
accord
.

There was a note on the kitchen counter. 

"Elias - I enjoyed our night together but let's keep emotions out of this.  We have to work together and it wouldn't do for you to fall in love with me.  When you need some, let me know and I'll be at the ready.  I hope you will be likewise for me as we both have needs and given the situation, the new members of our team likely will be dead, which certainly limits our options.