The Rabid (14 page)

October 19

Lisa
let me watch her masturbate. It was awesome.

From the
Desk of Dr. Lisa James

I
gave a short knock on the adjoining door between hotel rooms. There was no
answer. I unbolted it and peeked inside. Rex was sleeping soundly with two
fingers in his mouth. Alex's bed was empty, but the shower was running in the
bathroom. I knocked, asking if everything was ok.

"Almost done!" Alex's voice sounded almost cheery.

I felt arms wrap around my waist and hot breath on my neck. "Where do you think
you're going?"

I tossed Jack a backwards glance. "Not very far seeing as how your monstrous
erection is pushing into my lower vertebra. That actually hurts."

"I know."

I turned around and allowed his hands to fall to my hips. "Men typically reach
their sexual peak in their twenties."

He seemed confused for a moment " squinting his eyes at nothing in particular.

"Was...was that a question or...are you saying I'm an anomaly?"

"I'm just saying it's interesting that you can even have an erection that large
at your age."

He let me go and stomped one foot on the carpeted floor. "
Man
, you're a
boner killer."

I smiled. "I'm sorry. All I have is my medical knowledge, so sometimes it just
spills out."

"You have medical jargon Tourette's."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Tourette's isn't just yelling out random
curses. it's—" Before I could finish my sentence, Jack pulled me into a
passionate kiss. I fell into it and allowed my body to be overtaken by the
butterflies in my stomach. He was such a gentle person. His hands were almost
always touching my face gingerly or running through my hair. Anywhere else he
touched me caused tiny exciting shocks of electricity. He finally stopped to
give me air.

I took in a breath. "It also involves tics of the face or—"

"No," he said, kissing me again. "No. I did that to stop you from saying
non-sexy things."

"But I—"

He shook his head. "Nuh-uh. Nope. it's just us. I have no idea what you're
talking about. It sounds smart as hell, but you were going to go on for pages,
weren't you?"

"Absolutely. I wrote a paper on Tourette's in college."

He nodded with a laugh. "Of course you did."

I tapped my foot. "So, may I continue?"

"Nope. Later. You can explain all about Tourette's Syndrome later. When I don't
want to throw you down and have hot, sweaty sex."

"Which would be when?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe right after. When I'm coming down."

Tilting my head to one side, I found myself wondering if he were serious.
"You're statistically less likely to be listening then."

His smile grew wider. "Exactly. You could go on for ages and I wouldn't care.
Hell, you could read me the paper you wrote."

Surprise flooded me. "Really?"

He let out a belly laugh. "Whatever floats your Hindenburg."

Had I heard that correctly? "that's not very politically correct."

"Welcome to
Who's Jack Reynolds, Anyway?
Where everything is made up and
being PC doesn't matter."

"Is that a reference to something I'm missing?"

"Yes."

"Aunt Lisa!" Alex's voice startled us out of our own world. The bathroom door
opened and steam poured out. Alex was up on the seat of the toilet looking out
the window.

"Shit. Are some of them out there?" Jack pushed into the bathroom while I
picked up my sleepy son.

"No." Alex gestured to the window. "Someone's saying hello."

"What?" I slid past the door, but there wasn't much space left in the tiny
bathroom. I could just barely see between their shoulders. A strange light was
bouncing around the walls.

A few seconds passed before someone said anything. "it's morse code." Jack
turned and searched for something.

"Yeah. I noticed the light and it was saying "hello" in code." Alex handed Jack
the beauty mirror lying next to the sink.

"You are amazing, Juliet. Very smart."

She giggled at his compliment.

"What are you doing?" I bounced Rex lightly in my arms so he'd sleep again.

"I'm gonna signal back." He positioned the mirror on the window sill and opened
it. Cool air swept in, causing Rex to shiver. I held him closer to my chest. I
watched Jack move the mirror back and forth for a few moments. Then we waited.

"What did you say?" Alex asked.

"I said "hello" back and asked them if they needed help." They both turned back
to the window to watch. I stood on my tip toes to see a bright point of light
flash our direction. It clicked on and off at seemingly random intervals.

"No shit." Jack began creating a response.

"What is it?" I shifted Rex to my other hip. I didn't remember him being so
heavy.

"Just a sec." He moved the mirror back and forth. When he was done, he tossed
it back onto the bathroom sink. "There"re people over there. they're alive.
they're healthy. And they're offering us a place to stay."

"Really?" I watched as he and Alex pushed out of the bathroom. Alex began
packing her and Rex's things while Jack went into our room. Rex began to fidget.
He wanted down to help Alex. I put him on the floor and he wobbled off in her
direction.

"Is it safe, Jack?" I leaned against the door frame as he checked his guns.

"I don't know." He stopped and approached me. Giving me a kiss, he said, "But
we have to find out."

I nodded. "Just make sure you have plenty of bullets."

A coy smile appeared on his face.

"What is it?"

"Ammo. Pistols take bullets. Shotguns take shells. To cover it all, it's ammo."

I put out both my hands, palms up. "All right then."

He winked at me. "I'm the smart one this time."

October 19

"So, how are we going to find these people?" Lisa was bouncing Rex up and down
on her hip. It seemed so oddly instinctual that it took me a moment to digest
it.

"They gave me coordinates." It was a good thing Alex and I had just finished
fixing the hole in the break line of the van. I slammed the front hood shut,
startling Rex.

"Jag! Jaggy bad sound."

"it's "Jack", Rex." Lisa touched his nose with her forefinger.

"Could be worse." I began packing our things into the back of the van. "At
least I'm a cool car, huh?"

"Jag!" He began to struggle with Lisa, so she put him down. He ran to me,
throwing his arms around my leg. "Jaggy!"

Lisa shrugged. "It was a lot easier when he only knew "mommy" and "daddy"."

I was about to reply when Rex tightened his grip, laughed and said, "Daddy!
Jaggy Daddy!"

"For
a second, I thought I hand't heard him correctly. But when I looked at Lisa, I
knew what I'd heard was true. And I knew because she had this look on her face.
I couldn't describe it then, so I called it the "I don't fucking know" look.
One corner of her mouth stretched and downturned while looking at the ground
with wide eyes. She raked a hand through her dark hair. It fell back into place
in a feathery wave. Since I wasn't getting any input from her, I made a
decision to bend down and pick him up.

Tossing him onto my shoulders, I said, "You can call me whatever you want,
Romeo!"

Alex came out of the hotel room lugging two bags. She'd raided the mini fridges
in both rooms and grabbed what she could.

"Not me." She lugged the cases into the van. "you're Uncle Jack to me. Because
she's Aunt Lisa."

"I need more coffee. Is there more coffee inside?" Lisa was talking fast as she
made a move toward the hotel room door. I caught her forearm.

"Ooh, look at you."

"What is it?" Her eyes were still wide.

"you're all flustered, Foxtrot. what's the problem?"

"My only problem is caffeine withdrawal."

"You had three cups of that nasty instant shit this morning." I couldn't keep
my smile inside. Her eyes were pleading with me to stop teasing her, but I
couldn't.

"Then I'm jittery because of it."

I nodded, letting my hand slide down to squeeze hers. I was only playing.
"Yeah, probably."

I let her go when she breathed out a heavy sigh. But it wasn't a sigh of
frustration. That was the sigh of someone getting off the hook for something. I
knew that sigh very well. I couldn't tell if that fact was sad or not..."

"All right, folks! let's go!" We all piled into the car. Rex decided to set up
camp in Lisa's lap while Lexi ripped open a king size pack of peanut M&M's.
I gave a fake gasp and watched her in the rear-view mirror. "Ooh, gurl. You
gimme summa dem."

At first, she looked at me strangely — as if I'd reminded her of someone. But
then she giggled loudly and poured a few in my open hand.

It had been months since I'd been able to taste chocolate. Who would've thought
that to be the first thing to run out during the end of the world? Without
taking my eyes off the road, I stretched my arm out to Lisa.

"Want?"

"No, thank you. But I'm sure Rex would like one, wouldn't you?"

Rex bobbed his head excitedly while she popped an M&M into his mouth. He
squealed with delight as he chewed.

"So where exactly is this place?"

I kept my eyes on the empty road as I turned down a dirt path. "So damn close I
want to cry."

The coordinates the beacon had given me were only a few miles away from the
hotel. But the dirt road I'd pulled onto sent eerie shivers down my spine. Lisa
must have noticed my sudden quietness.

"what's the matter?"

The woods seemed to be closing us in. It was getting dark. "I don't know.
Something doesn't feel right."

Everyone had gone quiet except Rex who was mumbling happily in Lisa's lap. Just
a few hundred yards ahead, it looked as though the forest opened up. Beyond the
clearing, I could see an enormous house at the bottom of a grassy hill that
looked like something out of
Beverley Hillbillies
. No joke. The place
was huge.

"Whoa..." Alex leaned forward until she was between the two front seats.
"someone's got some money."

"Not that it matters anymore..." I didn't realize that I'd slowed the car down
until we were almost parked. As we inched forward, the sun began to creep its
way up the hood of the van. The trees separated until the clearing came into
full view. And that's when we knew we were in trouble.

Because
there were Biters everywhere.

"Shit." I slammed my foot onto the brake in an attempt to stall for some
thinking time, but nothing happened. And as the van reached the edge of tree
line, it also reached the edge of the hill.

"What's going on?" Lisa sounded as though she were trying to keep her voice
calm.

"Remember that hole in the brake line?"

"Yes. Didn't you fix that?"

I cleared my throat as the van picked up more speed. "Ah-yup. And now it's
back."

"You've got to be kidding me." Alex gripped the sides of each seat.

"Well...I guess it's time to brace for impact. Everyone got their seatbelts on?"
I glanced at them.

"I don't have one!" Alex squealed as Lisa buckled herself and Rex in tighter.

"All right." I kept my eyes ahead. "Just get down and cover your head. Behind
my seat. There you go. You'll be okay."

One by one, the Biters were realizing something was coming their way. They
began to turn and, upon seeing us picking up speed, started to growl and spit.
There were more of them than I'd initially thought, too. I'd say hundreds. They
littered the grass outside the mansion. Most of them were just shuffling along,
but when they saw the van, they began to run.

"What the fuck? They can
run
now?" I put the van in neutral.

"Let's just get the hell out of here, please." Lisa was gripping her armrest.

The vehicle continued to speed up as we neared the front gates of the house. I
could see the beacon blinking on and off in a side window. At least I knew it
was the right place. I tried to steer the wheel so we wouldn't hit the wrought
iron fence. There was a giant tangle of barbed wire surrounding the perimeter.

The Biters were closing in. While still yards away, I knew we'd have to make a
break for it. About a hundred feet in front of the wall of barbed wire, the van
hit a pot hole. The entire thing bounced. I couldn't control the wheel. It
jerked to the left and sent us off toward the side of the house.

Before I could even get a curse word out, we slammed through the wire and into
the brick wall. Luckily, the van's engine cushioned most of the blow and we
were all okay. However, I had no time to check for scrapes and bruises because
I could hear the Biters closing in.

"All right, everybody! Out the back!" I scrambled toward the double doors with Alex
in tow. But Lisa called out to us before we could touch the handles.

"My seatbelt is stuck!"

I turned back around to find her fumbling with what looked like a broken belt
buckle. Rex seemed to think she was playing and bounced in her lap. I finally
let out the curse and stumbled back to the front while Alex opened the back
doors.

"Hold still." I grabbed a pocket knife I'd been carrying since we'd left Las
Vegas and began to saw through the tough belt. Lisa kept amazingly calm while I
cut with fumbling hands.

"Guys! They're getting closer!"

I glanced back to see a wave of Biters running toward us. We had probably
thirty seconds to get through the front gate. Going back to my task, I sawed
faster than I thought possible. I swore I saw smoke coming from the belt.

Finally the last scrap separated and Lisa was free. I grabbed her and Rex and
ran to the back of the vehicle. We all jumped out and headed straight for the
front gate. But those damn Biters were fast. They closed in on us from all
sides, ready for a snack.

I didn't think twice. My gun was out in half a second and I was shooting any of
them within range. One by one they went down, but there were just too many to
count. By sheer luck, we reached the gate with seconds to spare. But it was
locked. Someone must have heard our crash and was running down the stone steps
to open up for us.

"Hurry!" I yelled as I turned to shoot more Biters.

The man reached the gate with hundreds of those things surrounding us. He
unlocked it quickly and began helping me shoot the ones directly in front. We
scrambled through the gate.

"Jack!"

I turned back in time to see Alex get pulled back by a particularly large Biter.
"Shit!" I leapt forward, instructing Lisa to get Rex to step back. I have no
idea if she actually listened to me because I was busy slamming the big guy
with the butt of my gun then shooting him square in the face. I'm pretty sure
he lost half his jaw.

I grabbed a crying Alex and we rushed inside the compound. The man who'd
unlocked the gate for us slammed it closed just as the Biters reached it,
pushing their bloated hands through to grab what they could. The five of us
raced up the path and into the house.

As soon as we poured inside, we all but fell to the floor in exhaustion. The
man who'd saved us said something about finding the owner and left. Alex was
still inconsolable.

"You okay, honey?" I put my arms around her. She nodded, but said nothing.

When I stood again, Lisa grabbed me and kissed me like she'd never see me
again. It was filled with so much emotion that it startled me.

"When are you going to get bored of saving my life?" she asked when we came up
for air.

"Never, Foxtrot. Never."