Man Eaters (29 page)

“That’s hogwash.” Cue-Ball got in his sleeping bag. “Wake me when it’s my turn to watch. Whatever hypotheses you all come up with, keep them to yourselves. I’m not interested.”

Butcher grabbed her rifle. “I’ve got first watch. Look, I don’t know if I’m grasping at straws or what, and maybe I’m way off base, but there’s a reason why those things didn’t attack you. Figuring out why could very well save our lives.”

When Butcher left, Einstein moved closer to Roper and Dallas. “It’s plausible, you know? Butcher’s scenario. All three of you escaped harm and you’re all gay.”

“If it’s true, then someone’s government created an army of undead that…” Dallas’s voice trailed off.

“Attacks only the straight human population,” Roper finished for her. “Unintentionally, they will have missed our people entirely.”

Einstein nodded, “If that’s the case, it’s brilliant to create creatures that only eat humans.”

Dallas and Roper’s heads whipped around.

“Think about it. If you want to take a country over without having to rebuild infrastructure or deal with rebellions after the takeover, you destroy only the human population. This saves the water supply, roads, buildings, agriculture, cows, sheep. Everything. Only potential rebels are removed.”

“But how do they conquer the zombies then?”

Einstein shrugged before burrowing down in his sleeping bag. “Who’s to say they don’t have some sort of remedy? Something that shuts the dead down? Then, all they have to do is come in, clean up, and take over. Brilliant, really.”

Dallas watched Roper’s expression change in the firelight. “Except they didn’t count on one thing.”

Dallas nodded. “Us.”

****

Dallas had only been on watch for ten minutes when Roper joined her, sitting so close their thighs touched. They sat in silence for nearly fifteen minutes before Roper finally spoke.

“I’ve replayed today over and over in my mind and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what the hell you were thinking jumping into that mess of decay.”

Dallas chuckled. “When I ran into the center of the man eaters with reckless abandon?”

Roper faced her. “Yeah. What the hell? And don’t tell me you were keeping a promise.”

Staring down at her hands, Dallas sighed loudly. “I guess I don’t see the point of doing all of this without you.”

Roper stared up at the moon for a few moments, Butcher’s words beating at the door of her heart. “Oh. I...I think I’m finally getting it.”

Dallas made a chuffing sound. “Slow learner.” Facing her so that their knees were touching, Dallas held Roper’s hands. “Just what is it you think you get?”

Roper gently tucked some hair behind Dallas’s ear and smiled warmly. “You like me.”

This made Dallas laugh. “Or something.”

“I’ve been afraid to care about you ever since that one day...” Roper’s voice trailed off. “I still can’t believe you raced into the fray to...to what? Die with me?” Roper blinked back tears that had been waiting patiently to fall. “You did, didn’t you? You weren’t going to let me die alone.”

“Watching you die wasn’t on my agenda. I’m sorry, Rope. I just couldn’t do it.”

“You realize it was a stupid thing to do, right?”

“Au contraire. Now we have begged the question, why weren’t we eaten? I think we might have inadvertently stumbled onto something that could very well change the course of this whole fucked up thing.”

“I’m pretty sure it was my B.O. I reek.”

Dallas smiled as she took Roper’s face in her hands. “You smell alive and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you that way.”

As the moonlight bathed them in muted light, Dallas pulled Roper into a kiss that felt as though they had done so a million times. Her hands left Roper’s face and as her fingers found their way through her cropped off hair, her tongue gently made its way through parted, welcoming lips. They kissed without parting for several minutes before Dallas leaned back and studied Roper’s shadowy face, her heart banging against her chest. “I’ve been waiting forever to kiss you.”

Roper leaned her forehead against Dallas’s. “All you had to do was ask.”

“I thought you were straight.”

Roper chuckled. “Then you weren’t looking carefully enough, but who could blame you? It’s not like we’ve had time to do anything but survive.”

Dallas closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “I meant what I said, Roper. I don’t want to do this without you. I’ve become rather fond of you and your quirky ways.”

Roper pulled back and grinned. “Quirky?”

“You carry a rope around with you and a bad ass knife in your boot.”

“And it saved our lives.”

“That it did.”

Roper brought Dallas’s hands to her lips and kissed them. “Thank you, for wanting to die with me. As sweet as it is, I want you to promise me—”

Dallas gently placed two fingers over Roper’s lips. “I can’t and won’t promise that. We’re in this together and ever since you walked across that bridge beam like some crazy thrill-seeker, I knew that wherever you go, so do I. Life, death, here, there, you’re stuck with me.”

Roper pulled Dallas into a tight embrace and felt the rest of her lower region stir with a yearning she hadn’t felt with Chris in years. She might have allowed it to take fruition had she not heard the sound of a rock being kicked. Instantly pulling away, she immediately went for her rifle.

“It’s just me,” Einstein whispered, climbing on top of the rock pile. “Looks like you two finally figured it out, though you cost me my red licorice.”

“Cost you your—”

“Me and Butcher had a bet. I thought you guys would figure it out long before now. Butcher said people caught in survival mode don’t always feel their emotions. She won. You two have been like watching lame horses run the Kentucky Derby.”

“Oh hush,” Roper said, playfully punching him. “Surely you didn’t get out of bed to bust our chops over red licorice.”

Einstein shook his head. In the soft moonlight, he looked ten years old. “I’m worried about Safety. Ever since you said he was bitten, I’ve wondered if his fever and reaction is to the gunshot wound or if it is just a slow reaction to the virus.”

“He woke up out of a fever to admit he’s gay. I think he’s safe.”

“But we don’t know the gay thing is certain.”

Dallas looked over at Roper and nodded. “He has a point.”

“I’ll watch over him, Dallas, but I am not tying him up. Been there and let me tell you, it sucks.”

Einstein glanced over at the group sleeping around the fire. “I’ll share the duty with you, Rope.” Sliding off the rock pile, Einstein said, “You know, it’s nice to know that even in an apocalyptic epidemic, people can still find love.”

As he sauntered back to the fire, Roper cocked her head at Dallas. “Did he say love?”

Dallas chuckled. “He certainly did.”

****

Roper

They were awakened by that ghoulish moaning just outside the walls. Roper was out of her bag with rifle in hand immediately, and one look at the rock pile confirmed her suspicions.

Cue-Ball had fallen asleep yet again on his watch.

Gently nudging everyone awake, Roper did a quick perimeter search to make certain the wall hadn’t been breached. Then, she climbed up the rock pile and slapped Cue across the face.

“Wake up, god damn you!”

Cue-Ball’s first instinct was to reach for the rifle Roper was standing on.

“Get up!”

Slowly getting to his feet, Cue-Ball rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “I’ve only been asleep a little—”

“Are you fucking out of your mind? Do you hear them? Get your shit together. We leave in five minutes.”

Climbing off the pile, Roper returned to the now dying fire to find everyone else, including Safety, already packed and ready to go.

“What do you want to do about the horses?”

Roper bit her bottom lip as she thought. “We need a trailer. I mean, we could always use someone else’s horses, but everyone here except me is a novice rider and I know mine are trained.”

“Then let’s get a trailer and make a beeline for the National Park and hope we don’t get blown to bits along the way.” Dallas addressed Roper. “It’s time we put the pedal to the metal.”

When everyone was ready, Safety thanked everyone for taking care of him.

“Feeling better?”

He nodded. “Much. Shoulder still hurts like hell, but I’m over the worst of it.”

Roper handed him a rifle. “You need a tutorial?”

“Point and click, right?”

Roper laughed. “Keep it to your shoulder or it will kick like a motherfucker.”

In Safety’s hand, it looked like a little kid’s gun.

“It’s going to be a tight squeeze. Peanut, you sit on Einstein’s lap. Butcher, you and Roper share the front, the three guys in the back.”

The moaning grew louder.

“That...that’s not the horde, is it?” Cue-Ball asked.

Butcher shook her head. “Not unless they’ve learned to run. These are just eaters from another mother.”

“Zombies we should have been warned about,” Roper said, glaring at Cue-Ball. “Thank god there were no breaches in the fence or we’d all be zombie chow.”

“Not all of us,” Cue-Ball muttered. “Just the normal ones would be ea—”

Roper had her forearm against Cue-Ball’s throat so fast and hard, it knocked his hat off when she pinned him against the Hummer. “We wouldn’t have to DD out of here, if you hadn’t fallen asleep on the job.”

“Roper—”

“No, Dallas, I’m sick of his shit. He is irresponsible and—” Before she could finish, Cue-Ball landed a right hook to her temple, knocking her backwards.

“Get your goddamned hands offa—”

Cue-Ball’s last word was caught in a throat now being squeezed by Safety’s large hand.

“You ever raise your hands to any one of these women again, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do. You feel me?”

Cue-Ball tried to nod, but Safety’s hand was in the way

“I mean it, asshole. I may be the new kid on the block, but I’ll use you as bait for the zombies next time you touch one of these girls. Got it?”

Cue-Ball managed to move his head slightly.

“Now get your sorry ass in the car.” Safety growled, releasing his grip on Cue’s throat. Turning to Roper, Safety asked her if she was okay.

“Thank you. I’m fine.”

“A man who hits a woman is a low life sumbitch and I won’t have it. Sorry if that cramps anyone’s style.”

“No one’s style is cramped, Safety, but please get in the Hummer.”

The moaning grew louder as everyone crammed into the car.

“The horses?” Dallas asked over the hood of the Hummer.

“I’ll open the gate, you drive out. I’ll close it behind me.”

Dallas stared at her.

“Look, if those things didn’t kill me in town, maybe they’ll never attack me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t know that.”

“Dallas, I can’t just let my horses roam the hills. I have to lock them up in here. If you have a better suggestion—”

“I do.” Dallas leaned over and said something to Safety, who got out and pulled Cue-Ball fighting, kicking and cussing out of the Hummer.

“You’re responsible for this mess, Cue, and you’re going to protect those horses with your life.”

“Like hell I am.”

“Like hell you are and here’s how this is going to go down.”

****

Dallas motioned to Roper, who swung the metal gate open. A dozen zombies near the gate all started toward the opening. The Hummer cruised over half a dozen before Cue-Ball, perched on top of the Hummer, yelled,” Come and get it, assholes!”

When the man eaters turned around to follow the meat on top of the Hummer, Roper swung the gate closed and latched it. When she turned back around, there stood three stragglers, looking at her through decaying eyes. She could easily make a run for it, but they were doing nothing more than standing there—not even moaning—just standing there, swaying slightly like they had done in town.

“I’ll be damned.”

Easing her way around the three eaters, Roper walked backwards, keeping an eye on the man eaters as she also watched the Hummer turn right, then right again on its way back to her.

The three zombies did not move even as Roper ran a ways to give herself enough room to get into the Hummer, which she did before it could come to a complete stop.

Cue-Ball scrambled off the roof, spewing curses and shoving everyone out of the way as he crushed into the jeep. “Never again,” he growled. “Next time, use some other chump as human bait. I’m not doing that again. Ever.”

No one replied as the Hummer left the zombies in the dust.

When Dallas hit the frontage road, she slowed down. “They didn’t come after you again, huh?”

“Nope. Just stood there looking at me like they were trying to figure out who I am. It’s creepy.”

“Creepy is asking someone to be human bait,” Cue mumbled from the back seat.

“Can it,” Safety snapped. “We’re all safe. That’s all that matters.”

“That and getting a trailer.”

“I’ll know the road when I see it,” Roper said, trying to get comfortable in Butcher’s lap.

They weren’t three miles down the road when Roper had them take a side road. It led to a gravel road that opened to three different farmhouses.

“The one at the end of this road,” Roper said, pointing to a light blue ranch-style farmhouse perched on a small knoll at the end of the gravel road.

“How can you be so sure?” Cue-Ball asked.

“There’s a horse on the mailbox, the fence is a horse fence, there’s hay out on the grounds, and,” as they pulled in, Roper grinned and finished, “you can see the equestrian ring.”

Everyone looked up the hill.

As they drove up the driveway, it forked and Dallas took the driveway away from the house. “We don’t need the house right now. We need the barn and trailer. We’re looking for a four-horse trailer or some kind of trailer large enough for four.”

“They might have a hay trailer,” Roper said. “Whatever we find, we’ll use. We don’t have all day to look for one.”

“Oh, look!” Peanut said, pointing. “A pond! Can I go play? Please?”

Dallas looked out at a large pond, half the size of a football field. There was even a small dock.