blast them.' Dora turned towards Mary, 'Say, you never did answer my question about what the heck you were doing out there?'
Mary looked up from where she held a bandage on Marge's jaw. 'We were just a bit down the street; we heard the gunshots and got outside as soon as we could to see what was going on. We got here when the car drove off and Marge got out of it. We thought you were soldiers come to save us.'
'Oh.'
Mary just looked at Dora who said, 'Sometimes 'oh' means nothing. Or nothing means nothing or 'oh'. Understand?'
Mary shook her head, 'I am surprised you are still alive. Peter come here please.' The boy moved next to her and she took the bottle of bleach from him. She then dumped it onto the floor around Marge and into one of the towels, which she wrung out. The powerful smell of the disinfectant filled the room. The zombies outside still banged softly on the door. Gesturing towards Dora Mary handed her the bleach bottle and said, 'Go fill this with cold water please and bring it back here. Do you have a mop?'
A mop?'
'A stick with some long white, rope-y cords at one end, used for cleaning the floor?'
'Jesus lady! I know what a mop is! I just haven't seen one, I will have to look.'
'You don't clean your own house?'
'I don't mop it.'
'Fill the bottle, find a mop or at least a bucket and come back here to clean up the floor around the doorway. I am moving Marge to the kitchen as soon as I can get her wounds cleaned and bound up.' Turning to Marge said. 'Okay this is going to burn a little, but if we are lucky, maybe it will sterilize the wounds.' Mary then pressed the bleach soaked towel to the wounds on Marge, cleaning them out one at a time and making shushing sounds as the chemicals started to irritate the wounds. Dora got out of there fast, flashing Paige a dirty look when she caught a smirk on the younger woman's face. Paige noticed and immediately put an expression of complete angelic innocence on her face instead, causing Dora to scowl.
'Why don't you check the garage for a mop? And then go fill Mike in on what is going on.' Dora said.
'Sure Dora, sure.' said Paige heading towards the garage door.
Chapter 20
'Fill the bleach bottle. Find a mop! Get me towels. Blah, blah, blah.' Dora muttered to herself as she topped off the bottle of bleach with water at her sink. Her back was to the rest of the group in the living room and she heard Marge's ongoing complaining about the treatment Mary was giving her. When Dora came back Paige returned from the garage with a mop and bucket. The mop was old, stiff and full of cobwebs. Paige handed it to Dora and set off up the stairs, with a bit of amusement in her eyes.
'Do you repent your sins?'
Dora heard Mary asking Marge as she arrived at her front door. Marge was standing up and Mary was working her legs over, each sported several oozing, bloody wounds that made Dora want to vomit. Looking at the bucket she was glad she had it handy, just in case.
'You about done, doc? Or should I say 'preacher'?'
'Don't. This is serious. Maybe she still has a chance to redeem herself, maybe the Lord means for her to find her way, even at the end of days. Do not make light of this situation.'
'Give it a rest. She is chomped up and bleeding and you are the only person with any way of helping her. Do you think she wouldn't say anything you asked her to? What is the Lord's feeling on coerced confession?'
Mary's face flushed slightly, but she nodded, 'Really what you say is true, Dora, I had not thought of it like that.' Turning back to Marge she said, 'Whether you repent or not, I will do what I can for you, and be as gentle as possible. I will still help you. Do you understand?'
'Yes.' Marge said.
'Do you repent your sins?'
Marge looked at Dora, 'Yes. Yes, I do.'
Dora let out a short, 'Hah!'
Marge continued to look at her, 'I do. I am serious too. I messed up Dora. I messed up bad. I am so sorry for what I did to you. And to him and to Jerry. If I could take it all back, I would.' The sincerity in her voice bothered Dora, this was not like Marge at all.
'Why Roger? I mean, you could have done so much better!'
'He showed interest, I am not like you Dora, men falling all over you, flirting. Roger…he, well, he showed interest.'
'How long?'
'Two months, it started when you went with your sister on that trip to Chicago. Roger said he was sure you were cheating on him, so you wouldn't care. He made it sound like you had practically agreed to it.'
'Roger was a player? God! Who knew? Marge, you don't think I would have told you first? I mean, if it was okay?'
'He said you liked to keep things discreet. Which is why you never talked about your other men to me.'
'You stupid, stupid woman! The fuck of it all is, if I had been getting some on the side, I totally would have told you. We'd have laughed about it.'
'I can't believe how naive I was.' Marge said, casting her eyes down.
'It takes two to have an affair.' said Mary, 'You knew it was wrong when you did it and you have suffered the Lord's vengeance because of it.'
'I know and I knew it then. I knew it was all lies when it happened, but I let it happen. I was mad at you Dora. Angry at how you seemed to have everything, you ate what you wanted and never gained a pound, had a husband who wanted you sexually and was around, you had friends, money and, well, things.'
'Margie, Margie, Margie, don't go all like this on me!'
The other woman just looked at Dora, 'Of course darling. So sorry about Roger and I. You are so right, I could have done better.'
Dora looked at her and let out a heavy sigh, 'Alright, I supposed I can deal with 'maudlin Marge', I mean you are dying and all.'
'Thank you. I am sorry.'
'As Mary said, it takes two, lucky you, I can blame Roger for most of it. Are you going to be okay?'
'I don't know, doc?'
Mary finished binding Marge's leg up with strips of towel and said, 'The bites will not kill you. Pray that you don't have the virus or whatever the infection is, if you don't have it, you will live.'
Dora made the sign of a cross with her fingers in front of her and said, 'Lord hear our prayer, please don't let Marge have the virus so she can get better so I can kill her myself. Amen.'
'Dora!' Marge said.
'I will agree to the first part. I hope God gives you time to reconcile and repent Marge.' said Mary, then to her son, 'Peter, we need to clean this up, come and help.'
Mary and Dora wiped Marge down with the towels and then led her across to the kitchen and sat her on one of the bar stools by the island. Mary sniffed the air as they went. 'What are you cooking?'
'Oh that? We popped a bottle of wine last night, to help us think things through and decided to make all the meat in the freezer into beef jerky so it would last longer, we expect the power to fail any time.'
'That's a good idea. Russell has a freezer full of meat too, venison mostly, we should get over there and bring it back here. How many days does it take?'
'Just about twelve hours actually, this batch is probably done. I think we made some of it a little too salty, other bits are too dry. We used the grill outside too.'
'That was the smell we ran into last night, there was a rot in the air, but fresh meat too, the mix was
