Man Eaters (18 page)

The chopper fired a small Hellfire missile at the Hummer, lifting the armored vehicle into the air before it exploded into thousands of pieces.

“No!” Roper screamed, starting for the saddle.

Butcher threw her arms around her to prevent her from mounting Merlin. “It’s too late, Roper. We can’t help them. They’re…they’re gone.”

Roper struggled to turn in Butcher’s grasp, tears in her eyes as she reached for the binoculars.

“No. No, I need to make sure...make sure no one survived that. Maybe one of them—”

Gently taking the binoculars from her, Butcher shook her head. “Trust me, babe. That missile destroyed everything and everyone in it. They’re…they’re really gone.”

“They’re gone…no…I can’t accept that. I can’t.”

Just as Butcher released Roper, Cue-Ball said, “Well, now we’re screwed.”

Butcher whirled around and punched him in the mouth so hard he fell back against the tree trunk. “Shut. Your. Fucking. Mouth!”

Roper wiped her tears and glared at him. “Show some respect here. Our friends…our friends have been blown to bits and all you can worry about is how that impacts us?”

Slowly rising while rubbing his jaw, Cue dusted himself off. “No disrespect, ladies, but we can’t help them. We have to worry about our own lives now. We’ve got no—”

“You son-of-a-bitch!” Roper was all over him, swinging away, hitting Cue’s head, shoulders and neck with fists that felt no pain. “Shut your fucking mouth, god damn you!”

Cue-Ball covered his face with his arms but Roper kept punching away, tears falling, anger swirling around her like a dust cloud.

“Stop fighting! Please stop fighting!” came Peanut’s tiny voice.

Roper would have continued had Butcher not put both arms around her and pulled her back. “That’s enough, Roper. Save your strength. He’s just an asshole.”

Cue-Ball uncovered his face and took a step toward them, but Zeus’ low, guttural growling stopped him in his tracks.

“Zeus doesn’t like you,” Peanut said, matter-of-factly.

“Easy boy. Good dog.” Cue backed slowly away, hands in the air. “Call off your dog, kid.”

Peanut frowned. “My name is Peanut.”

“And your name is asshole,” Roper yelled at him. “You better stay the fuck away from me, Cue!”

Butcher held her tighter. “Take it down a notch, Roper. There really isn’t anything we can do and this isn’t helping. Pull it together.”

Roper glared at Cue-Ball, but stopped struggling against Butcher’s grasp. “Fine. I’m fine. Let me go.” She straightened her clothes and returned to her horse, tears already falling. The sense of loss creating a ball of grief she was unprepared for.

Butcher stepped up to Cue-Ball and whispered something to him before returning to Roper and helping her with the saddles. “I need you to hold on,” Butcher said softly. “That little girl is counting on us to keep it together. I know this is hard. I know this hurts, but you have to hold it in until you’re alone.”

Impatiently wiping her eyes, Roper countered. “Keep it together? Why? So our own military can blow us to bits?” Roper whirled around. “So they can do that to us?”

“I know this is hard on you, Rope—”

“No, Butcher, you really don’t. As pathetic as this may sound, Dallas and Einstein were as close to family as I’ve had in a really long time. I lost more than survival buddies just now. I lost people I truly cared about…and for what? To what end?”

Butcher bowed her head. “I am so sorry.”

Hoisting herself onto the saddle, Roper grabbed the horn and stared straight head, letting the tears fall freely down her face. “She promised,” she whispered softly. “Now what am I going to do?”

****

They rode in silence for hours. Every now and then, Roper would sniffle and wipe her nose with the back of her hand. It all felt so futile now. She hadn’t allowed herself to wonder what it might be like to lose Dallas and the boy. She’d not let herself do any sort of outcome around that possibility. Part of her just wanted to give up, to just say fuck it and strike out on her own, but she couldn’t. And, quite suddenly, she felt the pressure Dallas must have experienced as leader of their little tribe.

Suddenly, she felt an enormous weight on her shoulders.

“Roper, we’ve been riding for hours. We’re all hungry and the horses need water. We really ought to stop.” Butcher cast a glance over her shoulder at Peanut. “And that poor little girl is about to slide right off her saddle.”

Roper didn’t look back. She didn’t need to. She knew the horses needed watering. She knew everyone was hungry. She knew she was driving them too hard, and she knew she couldn’t muster up enough energy to give a damn.

“Pull yourself together,” Butcher growled at her. “That little girl didn’t ask to be in this predicament. I know it hurts. I know you’re sad beyond measure, but we have a responsibility to that little girl to do the right thing.”

When Roper didn’t reply, Butcher said, “Fine. We’re riding parallel to the freeway and stopping at the first diner or McDonald’s we come to. There has to be something to eat somewhere.” Turning to Cue and Peanut she said, “As soon as we come to a diner or restaurant, we’ll stop and rest.”

“There is a God,” Cue-Ball grumbled. “Not that my ass would know.” His left cheek and jaw were puffy and discolored from his earlier pummeling by Roper.

An hour later, they came upon a diner with cars still in the parking lot. Bloody handprints and drag marks painted the macabre scene below them as they surveyed the area.

“That doesn’t look good,” Cue-Ball said, glancing around to see if the coast was clear. “I vote no. No, I vote oh hell no.”

“Look around you. There’s no one here for miles. I say we go see if there’s any food or water.” Butcher didn’t wait for a reply from Roper and rode down the short hill to the entrance of the drive-in before withdrawing her rifle from its holder and climbing off the horse.

“We gonna just let her handle this on her own?” Cue-Ball asked, spurring his horse down the hill.

Roper slowly followed, trailed by Peanut. By the time she reached the driveway, Butcher had checked inside four autos before jumping back from the fifth.

“Oh shit!”

Cue-Ball joined her, covering his mouth and stumbling backwards. “Jesus H!”

When Roper got to them, she peered in and saw a baby, still in its carrier...only it wasn’t just a baby. It was a zombie baby, straining at the straps and snapping its jaws. The low, growling hum emanating from its torn open throat was ghoulish.

“Gimme that thing,” Cue said, grabbing Roper’s gun. Stepping back, he raised the rifle and blew the baby’s head off. “We need to get out of here. This is a bad idea. A really bad idea.”

Butcher looked at Roper, who shrugged. “Horses need to rest. If all we have to worry about is a baby man eater, I say we give it a shot. I’m hungry. Anyone else?”

Butcher shook her head in disgust as she helped Peanut off the large horse. “Whattya say, Peanut?”

The little girl immediately ran over to Zeus and threw her arms around his neck. “I think Zeus is tired and needs a rest.”

“Then it’s settled. We’ll clear it all out and see if there’s anything left to eat.”

Clearing it out consisted of shooting a man eater that had managed to get its foot wedged in a hole in the cement, and shooting another that was still strapped into the passenger seat of its car in the parking lot.

Once inside, everyone carefully checked for any more man eaters. When there were none to be found, Butcher showed everyone the exit possibilities in the event someone came upon them, living or dead. Roper made sure the horses were under the overhang so no choppers could see them.

As she gently patted Merlin’s nose, Roper closed her eyes and let her grief wash over her, restrained tears tasting saltier and more bitter—and she was bitter. Bitter, angry, and so far beyond sad, she wasn’t sure how to recover. “I wish I knew what to do,” she said, leaning her head against the horse’s and sobbing. “I feel so…lost.”

“We got food inside,” Peanut said, tugging on Roper’s jacket. “Come in and eat.” Slipping her hand into Roper’s, Peanut pulled her inside.

“Is that—” Roper stopped and smelled the air. “Butter?”

Butcher nodded and pointed to the counter. “Have a seat. I’m making pancakes.”

“Pancakes? How?”

“Gas stove. Even with the infrastructure down, it’ll take a while for the gas to run out of the pipes.” She nodded with her head. “Sit. Sit. There are no eaters around here. Hell, there aren’t even many other dead bodies.”

With the three of them sitting at the counter while Butcher cooked, they watched her in silence until the bells on the front door clanged.

Whipping around, Roper had her hands on her rifle in half a second and pointed it directly at Dallas’s chest.

Dallas?

Roper blinked, unsure she was truly seeing who was standing at the door no one had thought to lock.

“Smells like breakfast,” Dallas said, smiling at the stunned group. “Hope you haven’t started without us.”

Letting her rifle fall from her hands, Roper ran to and crushed Dallas in a bear hug. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! We thought—” Then the floodgates opened and Roper wept, her face buried in Dallas’s neck. “I thought…I thought—”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, Roper,” Dallas said, gently easing out of Roper’s vise-like grip and gently tipping her chin up. “We’re all fine. It’s all good. No one got hurt. Well…none of us. Can’t say the same for the poor folks who took our Hummer.”

“I can’t believe you’re really here.”

When Dallas reached out to wipe Roper’s face, she understood the fear and sadness Roper must have been feeling. She’d been there once before and it sucked. Big time.

“It’s all good, love. Everyone is fine.”

“We saw the Hummer explode,” Butcher said, wiping her hands on a towel and embracing Dallas quickly. “We’ve been devastated.” She cut her eyes over to Roper, indicating the real we.

Dallas suddenly saw Peanut and Zeus sitting at the counter. “Well, who do we have here?”

Peanut excitedly launched into the tale of how they met and what fun it was to ride the horses. Dallas listened patiently, feeling Roper standing right next to her, nearly on top of her.

“Well that sure does sound like fun, but you better eat those up before I do.”

Once Tate and Coco joined them, Dallas explained the whole Hummer debacle while Butcher continued churning out pancakes, which were quickly devoured by the ravenous group. “Luckily, we saw the horses,” Dallas said, shoving a forkful of pancake into her mouth.

Einstein shook his head. “Luck had nothing to do with it. When you guys didn’t show, we waited and waited until Dallas figured out you probably saw or heard the Hummer go up and thought the worst. We’ve been driving up and down the frontage road and freeway all day looking for you guys.”

Roper tilted her head in a question. “Driving?”

“Yeah. They left us a Tacoma pickup, and you know what we discovered? Most of the abandoned cars on the freeway had been shot at. I always thought the man eaters got to them, but not this time. It was just like the bridge. The military has been busy.”

Roper squinted at Dallas. “Big risk to be out there during the day.”

Dallas shrugged. “You’re worth it. We were going to find you—”

“Or die trying,” Coco said. “As if any of us had a choice.”

Dallas ignored her “We figured that after blowing up the Hummer, the chopper folks wouldn’t expect to see anyone else on the road and took off for greener pastures. It was a hedged bet.”

“It was an insane risk!” Tate added.

“What do you think happened? Why did they take the Hummer out?” Cue asked.

“I think they came across the Hummer by accident, saw non-military people in it, and blew it to bits.”

“I’d take that bet,” Butcher said as she flipped a pancake onto Peanuts’ plate. “It could have been you guys this time, but it wasn’t, so in the future, we need military gear, at least for Dallas and Einstein.”

The room was quiet a moment.

“Future?” two of them echoed.

Butcher flipped another pancake onto a plate and moved it over to Tate. “We’re too big to move on foot. We only have four horses, so logic says we need another Hummer if we’re going to get out of California before the bombings begin.”

A tense silence hung in the room.

“Butcher’s right,” Dallas said. “We need transportation and we still need the horses.” She then addressed Cue-Ball, “Unless any of you would like to part ways now.”

Roper followed Dallas’s lead and turned to Tate. “Any of you wishing to go on your own can take the truck.”

“You trying to get rid of us?” Coco asked, fork in mid-air.

Dallas shook her head. “Not at all, but I think we need to have better ground rules before we go on. We can’t operate well as a group if people continually second-guess our decisions. If any of you think you can make better choices for yourselves, then here are the keys.” She tossed the truck keys on a table. “Knock yourselves out, but Roper, Butcher, Einstein, and I have a plan and a way of getting us out of here. If you have a better one, share it now. Otherwise, let’s reduce the tension by keeping Monday morning quarterbacking to a minimum.” She looked hard at Cue-Ball and Tate as she said this. “The rest of you are guests among the four of us and I’d appreciate it if you’d comport yourselves accordingly. If you want to do things differently, no one is holding you here.”

Roper nodded, though Tate and Coco just exchanged glances.

Dallas stood directly in front of Tate, her pupils pinpricks. “And then next time one of us needs help and any of you just stand there watching, you best just walk away. Better yet, run like the wind because if that ever happens, I’ll shoot you myself. Is that understood?”

“Why you looking at—”

“Is that understood?”

Tate closed his mouth and barely nodded.

“Good. So now that we’ve cleared the air, does anyone have anything to add?”

Peanut raised her little hand. “Can I go to the bathroom?”

Everyone chuckled and Butcher stopped pouring batter long enough to take her to the restroom.

“Where’d you find her?” Dallas asked Roper, standing closer to her and trying to ignore the bloodshot eyes and red nose.