When the Dead (11 page)

Rob went
out onto his balcony and looked down at the windows and sliding glass doors of
the apartments below. All the glass had been shattered and every so often he could
see a zombie enter or exit the building through the newly created doors, its
feet crunching on the shards without caution or care.

“Hey . .
.” Vaughn paused as he checked the dog’s collar, “Cheddar.” He greeted the
golden retriever that stood in front of him, its tail excitedly wagging, a
front paw extended to be shaken formally. The dog lived in a now abandoned
house a ways down the road from Willow Brook that Vaughn had just broken into.
Vaughn wasn’t too keen on animals but the dog followed him everywhere he went
within the house with what looked like a smile on its furry face. He couldn’t
help but warm to Cheddar. The only thing he didn’t like about the dog was that
it wouldn’t stop putting its paw up for a handshake. Every time Vaughn stopped,
there the paw was in his face. Vaughn took only a few supplies from the house
and, before leaving, he gave the dog some fresh water and ripped open a big bag
of dog food left by the absent owners.

            “Don’t
eat it all before I come back,” he said as he pet the dog’s head. Cheddar put
his muzzle in the kibble and started to fill his starving belly. Even as he
ate, the dog lifted a paw for Vaughn to grasp.

            “It
was nice to meet you, Cheddar,” Vaughn said, laughing, as he gave in and gently
shook the paw one last time that day.

Isobel’s
dreams were filled with strange things that night. A baby walked to the
barricaded stairwell with its mother and pointed its tiny little finger at the
wall of furniture, silently asking for it to be torn down. The mother, blinded
by love removed every item from the baby’s path. The undead flooded the
building, crawling up the stairs to break down the apartment doors. Then, Isobel
was at the grocery store because Willow Brook was empty of food but, no matter
how hard she tried, she couldn’t read the shopping list in her hand. In another
part of the dream Markus shot Vaughn. Upon waking she couldn’t remember why.

Her
dream was somewhat of a premonition. The next morning she went upstairs before
breakfast to grab some food. She was shocked at what she saw, or rather, what
she
didn’t
see.

            The
group kept all of their food stored in the third floor common area. It made
keeping stock a lot easier. The only problem with this plan, it turned out, was
everything. It wasn’t locked up, no control of it beyond verbal instructions
given to each resident on how much they could consume in a day. But, as Isobel
looked at the small pile of food left, they’d put too much trust in one
another. Someone in the group had obviously been eating more than their ration
or hiding extra away for themselves.

            Isobel
began to panic a little inside.
What will we do if we run out of food?
she
worried. She grabbed a breakfast bar and went back to her apartment.

            “Is
that all you’re going to eat for breakfast?” Ben asked.

            “It’s
almost all there is. Someone’s been taking too much food. Who would do that?”

            “That’s
a tough question. And I don’t even know how to start looking for the answer.
Just when you think you know the people around you.”

            “I
figure with the number of mouths we’re feeding, we’ll be screwed in a week and
a half if we don’t stop whoever is doing it and find some more food.”

            Ben
and Isobel sat quietly for the rest of the morning; pondering who could have
jeopardized the group. At lunch, Isobel chastised the group as a whole for the
incident, hoping to put pressure on the individual who was responsible. After
lunch Ben went to visit with Edward and Moira, leaving Isobel alone. A knock
came on her door.

           
Thank
God
, Isobel thought,
someone is going to confess.
Isobel opened the
door and let Markus in.

“Thank yo-” she started to say but he cut her off.

“It’s Molly,” Markus said with confident excitement in his voice.

Isobel’s mind couldn’t wrap itself around the name
Molly
. She was
sure that Markus was here to apologize. She hadn’t even considered Molly as a
possible culprit.

“She is bulimic. You know, binge and purge,” he whispered, even though they
were alone. He walked around the apartment touching things, waiting for a
response.

“Molly? She takes care of everyone else. How could she abuse her body
like that? How could she not think of the impact on the group?” The questions
came spilling out of Isobel. “This isn’t regular life. We can’t just drive down
the street to the store!”

“Calm down, Isobel. When you have a mental disease you don’t make
rational decisions,” Markus said.

“How do you know she is bulimic?” Isobel asked.

“About three months ago I bumped into her downstairs. She dropped some
mail and I helped her pick it up. There was a brochure for some kind of therapy
retreat. I handed it back but I saw the name of the center on it. I ran
upstairs and searched the Internet. Kind of snoopy of me but I couldn’t help
myself.  It was a body image clinic that specializes in eating disorder
treatment. You don’t get a brochure from a place like that unless you request
it.”

“I should check her old apartment on the third floor. That is the only
place she would have privacy. Ben is with the Cabels, do you want to come with
me?”

           
“Field trip!” Markus exclaimed. “I
love a good scandal!”

Molly
was frantic. She had run upstairs as fast as she could after lunch to try to
hide the evidence of her bad decisions. Her old apartment was a mess. Empty
food containers were scattered everywhere and it smelled like vomit. She was
able to fill one garbage bag with trash and toss it over the railing of her
balcony before her secret was exposed to all.

            Isobel
didn’t knock and that made Markus even more excited. She used her set of keys
to let them in. The smell hit her nose and she cringed. Markus felt proud as he
surveyed the proof of Molly’s betrayal. Piles of empty cans and plastic bags, a
can opener, used paper towels, all littered the floor.

            “I
knew it!” Markus blurted out.

            Molly’s
heart nearly stopped when she came out of the bathroom, a bag of vomit in her
hand, sweat building from her brow, to stand face to face with Isobel and
Markus.

            “What
. . . I . . . why are you in here?” Molly stuttered and yelled. She dropped the
bag of vomit on the carpeted hall. Markus watched the plastic bag fall and said
a small prayer that it wouldn’t burst open onto his pants. It hit the ground
with a soft splat and the plastic held. Molly didn’t give them time to answer.
She pushed through them and ran out of the apartment.

            “Oooh.
Someone’s in
trouble
,” Markus said to Isobel.

Rob and Gabe
were in the hallway when Molly came running by.

            “Dad,
she looks sad.”

            “Yeah
she does. I wonder what happened upstairs.” Thinking it might have something to
do with Vaughn, Rob followed after her. “Stay here champ.”

            Rob
found the door to 204 open a hair and he let himself in. Jill and Molly sat
together on the couch, Jill’s hands rubbing Molly’s back as she cried loudly.

“Hi Annabella,” Rob said as he walked over to a bassinet in the corner of
the living room. The baby was asleep despite the noise of Molly’s entry and
emotion. “Is everything alright, Molly?”

“I was getting better you know? I was in therapy and I was making . . .
progress. Things were looking up for once in a long time.” She kept her head
down and it looked like she was talking to herself more than to anyone in the
room.

“What are you talking about?” Rob asked. He truly was stumped.

            “I
have an eating disorder Rob. It’s my fault we are screwed on food. I tried to
stop but I’ve been so stressed about the baby and everything that I went a
little crazy last night.”

            “How
much did you eat?” Rob thought maybe she could consume twice her portions at
best.

            “I
don’t know but I was up there for three hours.”

            Markus
and Isobel had taken their time coming downstairs after Molly. They knew she
couldn’t go anywhere, none of them could. The two of them walked into 204, Gabe
followed behind, looking for his dad.

            Molly
saw Markus and her eyes drilled into him.
How long did you know?
She knew
it was his fault she’d been found out. “Why did you do this to me?”

            “Woah,
woah. I didn’t
do
anything,” Markus pointed at himself dramatically.

            “You
told Isobel and now almost everyone knows.”

            “I’m
not a tattle-tail. I’m a do-gooder. Some of that food you wasted was for me!
I’m just trying to survive.”

“Ok guys. Calm down. Molly, we were bound to find out. Markus, you could
maybe have given Molly an opportunity to tell the group on her own.” Rob tried
to be a neutral force in the argument.

            “She
was upstairs cleaning up anything that tied her to the problem. I don’t think
she planned on admitting anything!” Markus yelled, pointing at Molly as he
buried her deeper.

“What do you want me to do, Markus? It’s an obsession,” she said,
exasperated, “and I’m sorry.”

“I accept your apology Molly. As for everyone else, that is up to them,”
Isobel said.

Markus left without saying anymore. He didn’t like feeling his mortality.
It would be awhile before he could forgive Molly for her wrong.

Dinner
the same day brought yet another meeting of the group.

“Thanks everyone for meeting like this all the time,” Isobel said.

“It’s not like we have other plans,” Edward said lightheartedly and everyone
laughed at his apocalyptic humor.

“On a serious note though, I called
this
meeting so that Molly
could talk to everyone all at once. Molly?” Isobel looked to her expectantly.

“I don’t think I can do anything but come out and say that it’s my fault
that we don’t have enough food to last us through the month. I am bulimic. I’m
sorry. Really I am. I’ve been through therapy, before this, and I just have to
work hard to put everything I learned there back into practice. The
circumstances are a little bit . . . different this time though.”

“You messed up the rationing, Molly,” Rob, who’d had a little bit more
time to think about Molly’s decisions, reprimanded her.

“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I love you all like family now, especially
Gabe and Annabella. This problem is just bigger than me.”

“I want to believe that you can control it but I think we should put the
food supply in an apartment up there and lock it up; create a controlled system
to divvy it out,” Ben suggested. “So this doesn’t happen again.”

“I agree with, Ben.” Markus said.

Moira grabbed Molly’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry Molly, but I agree
with Ben too.”

“It’s fine Moira. I brought this on myself. Everyone has a right to be
angry with me.”

At that moment Gabe poked his head around the corner. He’d been listening
to the whole meeting. “I’m not mad at you Molly.” Rob waved his hand at Gabe to
join the group and Gabe ran to sit on Rob’s lap.

“No matter where we store it or how we lock it up, the problem right now
is that we don’t have enough.” Jeff reminded the group.

“I have a plan for that,” Isobel said. “We all know that Vaughn goes out
regularly and is skilled at  . . . well, staying alive out there. I’m going to
talk with him about taking some of us out to bring back food.”

“How will we decide who is going?” Edward motioned with his cane around
the circle of residents. The room became silent. No one wanted to think about
going outside.

Isobel broke it, knowing a decision had to be made. “Well, you and Moira,
though very agile and healthy for your age, won’t be able to fight, run, or
haul as much food as the rest of us so you don’t have to worry about it. Jill
just had a baby and isn’t very . . . stable. She will stay here too.”

Molly was terrified to be alone with Vaughn inside the walls of the
building. She didn’t want to be stuck with him
and
the undead but she
knew they would expect her to go.

“I’ll go,” Molly volunteered, hoping that someone would speak out against
it, “even if you weren’t going to say my name.”

“I
was
actually going to suggest you. We need to be responsible
for our actions so this is how you will repay the group, by replacing the
rations you consumed. Ben, if you feel up to it, I’d like you to go with Vaughn
and Molly. You have the most familiarity with firearms and you are the
strongest of the men.”

“Hey!” Markus called out. “I’m strong too.”

A few residents laughed but Molly didn’t find his comment funny. It was
his fault that she’d have to leave the building; have to spend time with
someone who’d tried to molest her.

“Ok, Markus, you can go,” Isobel countered with a smile.

Markus turned white and shook his head.

“Don’t worry Markus, I’ll go. I’ll come upstairs to talk to Vaughn with
you too, Isobel,” Ben offered.

“Perfect.”

Markus,
Jeff and Rob moved what was left of the food into an empty apartment upstairs.
Isobel locked the apartment and waited for Ben to meet her at Vaughn’s door.
She wanted to plan that day so that it could get done before the food situation
at Willow Brook became desperate.