“Zombie apocalypse man; there are freaking zombies everywhere. Almost everyone is dead and you still can’t talk normally in front of a girl? Come one, Gerald. I’ll tell you what that is. That right there is pathetic.”
“Shut it, Will. I talked normal back there,” said a man, Gerald I guessed.
"No," spoke another man, "Your voice went all deep, ‘come with me if you want to live.’ ”
“Yeah, that was kind of stupid, man. Are you going to talk like that when she wakes up? Can you keep something like that up?” asked Will.
“That’s just how I talk around the ladies. They happen to like it,” said Gerald, and now I could tell he was the one carrying me.
“Oh, they do? Because to me, it looked like she wanted to kill you,” said Derek.
“Yeah, what did you say to her? She was P.I.S.S.E.D, big time,” said Will.
“Hush. Your bickering is going to wake the baby,” said the fourth man, the one with the subtle British accent. “He’s so cute.”
“I’ll trade you mom for son…” Gerald started to say, but before he could get the sentence out I was fighting myself free from his arms, wiggling like a worm really. “Hold on. Calm down.”
“No, let go of me!” I shouted. I was thrashing around, struggle against his massive arms.
“Miss, Miss,” said the man with the British accent. He stepped into my line of sight and I stopped moving. He was the guy with long dark hair who grabbed up my cutlery, while the big brute that was carrying me was holding me down. “Look, see. Here’s your boy. He’s safe.”
“He’s sleeping,” I said and I didn’t understand it. He only ever let me hold him. “He should be screaming. Did you drug my baby too?!” I yelled and I tried to lash out in anger, but Gerald tightened his grip around my waist.
“No,” said the blond man who had my guns. I recognized his voice as the one that belonged to Will. That meant that the black fellow standing away from us was Derek. “We didn’t drug your baby. We wouldn’t do that, but if you don’t keep your voice down we may have to drug you again.”
I nodded and took in some calming breaths. “Where are you taking us?”
“I told you,” said Gerald. “Someplace safe.”
I drummed my fingers on his back. “Can I at least walk?”
Gerald hiked me up higher on his shoulder. “I don’t trust you not to do something stupid.
I sighed. “You have my kid and my weapons. I can’t survive without either of them, so I’ll play nice.” I put up my hands as if to say, ‘look, I’m just a wee unarmed girl.’ The fact that I was draped over a man’s shoulder only helped my case.
Will gave me a long look from under his blond brows. His eyes flicked to Derek, standing in the shadows, then to the man holding Christopher and then to Gerald. He shrugged. “It’s up to you,” he said to Gerald. “She pulled a knife on you, so what you say goes.” I rolled my eyes.
“What’s your name?” asked Gerald.
“Erin,” I said.
“Erin, I’m Gerald, but they call me the Hammer.”
“We never call him that,” spoke up Will.
“They sometimes call me that, because I like to use the hammer when I kill zombies.”
“We never call you that, and you’ve never actually killed a zombie with a hammer, freakin dork,” Will mumbled the last bit.
Gerald cleared his throat. “If I didn’t have a gun, I’d use a hammer. It’s my backup. Anyway, that jerk is William. Don’t mind him. He has no sense of social graces. If he thinks it, he says it. The guy in the shadows is Derek. He’s the strong silent type.”
“Yeah, what are you, like Kenyan or Nigerian?” Will asked Derek.
“I’m black, I’m a black American, you fucking jerk,” said Derek.
Gerald ignored their argument. It went on and on as he introduced me to Pane, their British companion, and I got the sense that Will was the sort of guy you didn’t argue with because he never admitted to being wrong or gave up any ground.
Pane rocked Christopher in his arms as he explained how the three other men found him. He’d been visiting Olympia on holiday when the whole Zombie Apocalypse went down. He and his mates decided to escape the densely populated city and head for the mountains…but so did a lot of other people. The roads became packed, making the people easy pickings for the zombies. Pane’s friends didn’t make it, but he somehow found his way up here, where Derek, Will and Gerald found him half starved.
“So, now you know our names. Do you feel better?” asked Gerald.
I did, actually. Before they were just another group of power hungry, greedy men, but now they seemed more like a great big group of socially awkward dorks. “Yeah,” I said, and Gerald loosened his grip on me and I slid off his shoulder.
I immediately went to Pane’s side to see Chris. He had him cuddled up against his shoulder. His face was nuzzled against his neck and his little fingers were twirling Pane’s long hair. That made me smile. I think it was the hair that fooled Chris into thinking I was carrying him and lulled him into a false sense of security. Pane’s long black hair was similar to my own dark brown hair, in length and texture.
I was about to reach out for him, but I caught the scent of something off, something rotten. My eyes went to the forest, wide as they tried to see more than they were able in the dense darkness.
“I smell something,” I said.
“Me too,” said Gerald. “Shut it,” he said in a hushed voice to Will and Derek.
Pane moved closer to me. “Gerald, it smells ripe. I think we’re downwind of something very nasty.”
“We’re close to the base. If we keep moving and keep quiet, we may make it,” said Derek.
Will moved to Gerald’s side and spoke softly so that the rest of us couldn’t hear their conversation. I didn’t like that. Gerald looked up and out in one particular direction and then he shook his head.
“No, we need to hunt it and kill it. Will and I will track it. You two take Erin and the baby to the base.”
“What if there is more than just one? What if there’s another horde?” asked Derek.
Gerald and Will exchanged a look. Gerald looked dead serious and moved his large hand to a heavy hammer at his utility belt.
“You ready to die, Hammer?” Will asked with a wily smile.
“Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam!” Gerald said, and they moved off into the darkness.
Derek came to my side. “We need to go. The base is just another mile east of here.”
“It doesn’t feel right leaving them like this,” said Pane, but he started moving and we followed.
“They can take care of themselves, man. You know they kick more zombie ass than anyone we know,” said Derek.
“Everyone I know is dead,” Pane whispered.
“What was that Gerald said?” I asked. I was trying to increase my speed to keep up with their long strides.
“It’s Klingon,” said Derek. I rolled my eyes. Such dorks. I was scared of them? Seriously? “Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam!” Derek said, “Today is a good day to die.”
