laughing.
'I didn't find that so funny myself, but those guys sure weren't aiming much. Nonetheless, they tracked their guns right through cowboy. You know what happened?'
Red shook his head.
'He stayed up. Gut shot two or three times and the man, cool as a cucumber twirls one gun into the holster then reloads the other in a matter of seconds. He was alive, Red, he had the colors in him, like they all do. Then you know what he does?' Red shook his head again, Jimbo did laugh then, 'He holstered his gun and reloaded his other fucking pistol, like he has all the time in the world! Now he was fast don't get me wrong, from the time he was shot until the time he had both guns reloaded was a matter of seconds. The zombies had a few problems that helped him out too; one of their guns jammed and the other just fired his dry and seemed to be having problems reloading. Both had pistols though, tucked into their belts and then Red…then the showdown at noon did happen. You ever seen a movie where one guy faces off on two others? The zombie threw their assault rifles down and reached for their pistols, and cowboy went for his. They didn't even get their guns out of their belts. One shot himself in the leg, but that was probably a convulsive reflex. Cowboy then empties the next ten shots into the slow zombies that are still coming towards him. It was pretty awesome.'
'So the guy was fast, what's that got to do with what you were saying?'
'Well what if it works both ways? You know we get better, stronger and faster if we eat more people. What if people start getting something from killing us?'
Red thought about it for a minute, remembering Max and the corn field outside of North Platte, he nodded slowly. 'That could be, I've seen a few things myself.'
'So, how many zombies do you reckon Max killed before I ran into him? And how many more before he ran into you?'
Red shrugged, 'Max could see zombies at a distance, he just knew where they were and he said his ability was getting stronger too.'
'So, did you just get better at one thing?'
'No.'
'Probably he is better at more things than he knows.'
'Yeah, look where you going with this?'
'What if he can get what he needs? What if running into me and then you wasn't coincidence? What if he ran into us and set us on the paths we are on right now to help him out in the long run?'
'That'd be a might useful talent.' Red said doubtfully, 'Kinda far-fetched.'
'Yeah, like seeing zombies from a distance or being able to protect yourself from other zombies messing in your head.'
'Still a bit of a stretch Jimbo.' said Veronica, 'I mean carry that logic out far enough and you have Max getting himself arrested so Red would have to come break him out, which allowed this other zombie to kill Nita and take Hugh. Thus setting up Red to come here and meet us, to get the ability to resist the other zombie and help Max, and the other humans live safely in Iowa.'
'I'm sticking with it. Until I learn different.' Jimbo said stubbornly.
Veronica shook her head, but Red was more convinced by her chain of logic.
'I'm right, the more I think about it, the more sure I am. So you know what that means don't you?'
'You get a brownie?' Veronica chimed in.
'No, it means we have to teach Red how to resist more powerful zombies.'
'What a surprise. I agree though.'
'Was it the Max connection?' asked Red.
'No, it was what you said about NASCAR.' All three erupted in laughter, which brought Bobby into the kitchen with his gameboy to see what was so funny.
'So what happened to cowboy?' asked Red as Veronica tussled Bobby's hair. The boy pulled away and sat on the floor, focusing his attention on the video game once more.
'Cowboy?' Jimbo asked, turning somber, 'He didn't make it. He reloaded, then took about three steps and fell over while he was reloading. He wasn't dead and the rest of the mob got him. We didn't stick around to see him come back.'
'Did you think about saving him?'
Veronica shook her head, 'No, what could we do? I was a barista at a coffee shop and Jimbo was an auto mechanic before this happened, neither one of us know anything about putting humans back together.'
'You could have changed him yourself.'
'There's a thought, how would he be when he came back? Still fast or would he start all over again.' the big man shook his head, 'No, he was still shooting once in a while as the zombies approached, I wasn't willing to risk it. I supposed we could find him if we went back…well maybe not now with all the weaker zombies called east.'
'So what can you tell me about mind reading and resisting the control of more powerful zombies?' Red asked.
'I'll show you a few things first. Bobby? Put the game down would you, so we can show him what we can do?'
The music on the video game cut off and Bobby set it on the floor and stood up. Jimbo went to the counter and took a pad of paper and a pencil from a drawer and put it on the table in front of Veronica and Red.
'I'm going to stand over here looking outside.' Jimbo said as he moved to the back door and peered out of the window next to it. 'Bobby why don't you write a number on the piece of paper.'
Bobby took the pencil and drew a square on the paper, inside of it he wrote the number twelve.
'Twelve, inside a square. Let's stick to numbers okay, you don't want to rely on me to guess what you draw.'
Red sighed, 'This is no big deal Jimbo, I've seen that before, you can see through the boys eyes.'
Jimbo turned and smiled, 'Oh? Well let's see if I can impress you a little more.' He walked over and took the pencil from Bobby. 'Go over where I was.'
Bobby walked across the room and Jimbo wrote the number thirty three on the pad of paper.
'What'd I write?'
'Thirty three.'
'Okay so you trained him to see through your eyes too, that is…different. Still not very useful.'
'Let's do it again Bobby.' Jimbo wrote two hundred and ten on the paper.
The boy shrugged his shoulders and said, 'I can't see nothing.' Then a moment later he said, 'Okay two, one and zero. Two hundred and ten.'
'See? I can choose to let him in or out.'
'Yeah, but how?' Red persisted.
'That is the crux of it, isn't it? Now for Veronica and Bobby here I went in and did something to their brains. We have a level of trust with each other and I didn't monkey around with anything I found there. It was like I went in and turned a switch to 'on' that was 'off' before. It's hard to explain exactly. The thing is I can't do it without you letting me.'
'How do I let you?'
'This is where it gets interesting. I don't know for sure. See Bobby was mine, I made him and that relationship gave me certain control over him. And V? She was my sister, she is my older sister though, if you understand what that means.'
'Sure, she was made before you. On the hierarchy that means she should be more powerful than you. But I know about siblings, I have enough zombie siblings.'
'That's it exactly. In your case you can kind of keep me out, but you aren't doing it consciously, it is like your body has a defense against me, probably because I am not as strong as you. But you don't really know what you're doing so I can kind of get in, read surface thoughts and stuff. I might, just might, be able to read a number with you resisting me. I think that's where we need to start. We'll try it, then I want you to try and resist me, then I want you to try and let me through. If we can get you to the point where you have some control, then maybe we
