in rural America that lay parallel to the ground. You’d go up four or five steps and then your head would be pushing against the top of it. Then you’d push it out above you and be level with the ground.
“Look at it,” I commanded. “Sure it’s got a padlock on it, but have you ever tried to stand on it? How much weight do you think that door could stand before it would just shatter into tiny little bits?”
He looked at me. If I was lucky that expression on his face would be one of growing concern. But I don’t think I’d gotten through to him yet. “I don’t know, Duke. A thousand pounds?”
I nodded. “Okay. How many zombies do you think it would take to reach a thousand pounds? Five? Ten? Once they realize we’re in here all they’d have to do is stand on that, it’d shatter, and then they could get in.”
“Okay, you’ve made your point,” he said, looking at the door speculatively. “I’ll send Graham down here to watch it.”
I growled in frustration. “You’re not getting it, Washington. What happens when they come bursting through it and surprise him and kill him before he can warn us? Then the next thing you know they’re streaming up the stairs and we’re all dead. You need to have your guards watch in pairs.”
“Fine,” he said, getting pissy. “I’ll have the men at the doors watch in pairs. We don’t really have a lot of men to spare, Duke. In case you didn’t notice.” He paused. “Anything else?”
I could tell I was pushing him too far, but I knew he had to know everything. “Your men at the doors all need to be armed. I don’t care how you re-distribute the weapons, but they all need to have something. They’re our first line of defense and if they have nothing then we’re all screwed.”
He opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off again. “And another thing. Some of them don’t seem to be taking this seriously enough. Half the men at the windows are barely looking out. What do you think would happen if a zombie crashed through one of those things? You need to barricade the windows as best you can. And the back door.”
Washington blew up at me. “What makes you the expert? Do you want to be in charge, Duke? Do you want all these people relying on you to keep them alive? I don’t want this, but everyone keeps looking at me to do all this. You don’t think I’d rather be hunkered underneath a blanket with the rest of you?”
I don’t really know what had happened to me this weekend. If a grown man had blown up at me like that two days ago I would have felt shame for talking back to my elders and wouldn’t have been able to look at him. In short, I’d have been scared shitless. But seeing your friend get eaten right before your eyes and killing a man has a tendency to make you grow up pretty fast. I met his eyes without flinching.
“No,” I said quietly, “I don’t want that responsibility at all. I wish we weren’t in this situation, Washington, but it is what it is. For some reason the dead are walking and trying to kill and eat us. We have to deal with that the best we can and these people look up to you as their leader. You’re a good man, Washington. There’s not one person out there who doesn’t know that.”
I put my hand on his arm, gripping it tightly. “But we need to be safe, Washington. I don’t know much about zombies. Barrett was the one who watched the horror movies, not me. But he taught me a lot after,” I paused, shifting through the lies, “after what we saw this afternoon. Ways to protect ourselves. You’re our leader and I just want to make sure you know those things. We have to make sure all the doors are covered, barricade all the windows, and protect ourselves with weapons. Zombies are like cockroaches: they will find a way in if there’s one to be had. They’re not smart, can’t think for themselves,” I hoped, “but they do have animal instincts and they’re relentless. They’ll just keep coming.”
He swallowed back his anger. Looked at the walkout and then back up at the stairs to the House. Then back at me. Finally he nodded, perhaps reevaluating my manhood. “Do you think we have any chance, Duke?”
I hesitated, wondering how honest I should be. Do you really want your chosen leader to be completely hopeless? I decided honesty was the best bet. Then maybe he’d take this seriously. “Not much of one, Washington. Very slim. Eventually all the lights we have blazing will attract them like moths to the flame and they’ll come. Maybe we’ll be lucky and they won’t find a way in, but I’m not holding my breath. Our only true hope is that we get help from outside and they blow all the zombies away and this will just go away.”
He barked a laugh. “And what do you think is the chance of that happening?”
“Um, slim to none? Then our hope at that point is that they get them all and this whole thing goes away. Then we can go back to normal.” Not that I ever thought I’d be able to get back to normal. “If not,” I shrugged, “then we’re facing the end of life as we know it.”
“Peachy,” he said as we began the climb back up the stairs.
“Yep.”
15.
I still couldn’t sleep. I could feel the dreams on the edge of my consciousness and could see them out of the corner of my eye. I walked around the House one more time and could feel every eye watching me. When I turned my head to catch them looking at me most looked away but a few actually returned my gaze. I could see doom and hopelessness in every eye.
Feel it in my gut. We were all doomed.
I tried not to disturb Fannie Mae as I sat back down next to her but my jostling back into position woke her up. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and yawned. “What time is it, Dukey?”
I looked at my wrist, at the watch that was not there, and then looked around the room for a clock. I squinted at it. “Eight, it looks like. A little after.”
She sighed. “Where were you? I woke up once and you weren’t here.”
I debated on what to tell her, but we’d been pretty honest with each other today so I didn’t want this to be between us. I told her where I’d been and what I’d been doing.
“Are we safe?”
I shrugged. “As safe as we can be, I guess. Washington took me seriously and he’s upped the guards on the doors. I saw him send a couple guys to the basement a little bit ago and he even took Wilkinson off the back door. We might be okay, Fannie Mae.”
She took my hand in hers and tightened her fingers on mine. I looked at where our hands met and flashed
