“My God you’re one beautiful specimen of a man!” He said to no one but himself before making two finger guns and popping off both rounds at his reflection in the mirror. He spun around to leave the bathroom already feeling one-hundred times better than he did when he first opened his eyes. He opened the door and jumped back, fists up and ready to fight as the figure lurched passed him into the bathroom. Johnny didn’t even bother waiting for Roosevelt to leave before he started to urinate in the toilet.
“AHHHH!” Johnny groaned after a few seconds.
“You could have waited till I was out of the room first!” Roosevelt said through the barely cracked door.
“Oh, I didn’t want to interrupt your self-confidence speech seeing as you're supposedly the perfect specimen of man and all.” Johnny replied with a chuckle. Roosevelts dark cheeks turned red as embarrassment washed over him. He laughed nervously, “You heard that huh?”
“Every word of it you handsome devil you!” Johnny jabbed again. Roosevelt left the hallway to avoid Johnny's continuous jabs for the moment. He would need a massive cup of coffee before he could deal with that so early in the morning. He stepped into the kitchen and spotted Bud dishing scrambled eggs onto three different plates. Sausage patties already sat on the edge of each plate along with a slice of thick cut sugar ham. Roosevelts stomach growled like one of the zeds when he spotted the steaming plates of food. In the middle of the table sat a plate stacked high with flapjacks. Butter melted and ran down the sides of the still warm cakes.
“What's the occasion?” Johnny's voice sounded from behind Roosevelt.
“Electric is getting even more unreliable every day, and I don’t want this stuff to go bad plus that man there can eat!” Bud replied, pointing a plastic spatula at Roosevelt.
“Makes sense. He is the perfect specimen of man after all.” Johnny said with a chuckle giving Roosevelt one final jab. Bud sat the plates down around the table and they all sat down to eat. Roosevelt started with a stack of four pancakes plus the eggs and sausage on the side. Johnny and Bud being more conservative had only a single cake each along with their plate of eggs and meat. Roosevelt polished off seven pancakes, four scrambled eggs, two slices of ham and five pieces of sausage before finally tapping out. Johnny and Bud watched in amazement as he continued to shovel it all in. When he finally stood up his normally flat washboard stomach was pooched out like a woman four months into a pregnancy.
“My God, man, how do you fit that much food in there?” Bud asked, genuinely curious. Roosevelt shrugged before letting out a massive burp. Bud laughed and shook his head as Roosevelt explained.
“I’ve always eaten like this. Even when I was a kid my mother would have to make me stop eating so we didn’t go hungry the next day.” He said, wiping his lips with the back of his hand.
“There’s a town meeting in a half an hour if you two’d like to come?” Bud asked, looking from one man to the other.
“Actually, we’re going to try and hit the road today. We’ve got a lot of miles to cover and a ton of zeds in between and the things are only getting worse every day.” Johnny explained. Bud nodded his head.
“I understand. You boys have been a huge help since you’ve been here, and we would be honored for you both to become Sweetwater residents if you change your minds about leaving. Just something to think about.” Bud said, stepping forward and shaking each of their hands.
“Maybe if we ever come back through Sweetwater, we’ll stick around for a while but as of now we have to get to my old man's place. I don’t even know if he’s alive or dead to be honest with you.” Johnny said, a grim expression covering his face at the thought of losing his father too.
“Well like I said you two are welcome in Sweetwater anytime. I want you to come down to the station with me before you go. I’m sure you both have used up all the ammo I gave you and you’ll need it for your trip. A deals a deal.” Bud said, a warm smile covering his face.
“You sure you have the ammo to give after last night?” Roosevelt asked.
“I’ve got more ammo than either of you has ever seen stashed away. Perks of the job and all.” Bud said with a chuckle.
“Alright then let’s go see this stash of yours then. I also want to swap out pistols. This 1911 is cool and all but I want something that holds at least fifteen rounds or more.” Johnny said.
“After last night I feel the exact same way. Think we could trade up?” Roosevelt asked.
“Yeah no problem at all. I’ll have one of my guys take you back down to pick out something nice while I’m at the town meeting. I'm also sending you fellas out with a few extra rounds since you did help us stop those things from overrunning this place,” Bud said.
“We appreciate that. Every little bit helps.” Roosevelt replied. Johnny nodded in agreement and then fell in behind Bud and Roosevelt as they headed out the door. An hour and a half later they were shoving the last of their things into the back of the bronco. Bud had given them two hundred and fifty rounds of ammo for each of the weapons they had. Roosevelt still had the AK-47 he had taken from one of the men the day before and Johnny had kept the AR Bud had given them. Altogether they now had two rifles, two shotguns and two pistols
