Ascension

'Shower first, I'm getting this blood off of me.'

'The water will be cold, the generator just came on. The water heater needs a couple hours to do its job.'

'I am not sitting around with all this blood on me for a couple of hours. A cold shower will get it off as good as a hot one.' Katie marched upstairs past the now closed door of the room Beatriz lay in and continued on to the master suit.

'Nice.' Katie said, pushing inside. The room had cream colored walls with dark, mahogany trim. The floor looked like it was made of compressed bamboo and there was a large throw rug on top of it, upon which sat a king sized bed. The bed looked like it hadn't been slept on in weeks. There were two large windows, one overlooking the street below and the other looking out the back yard. Along the far wall were two doors and a doorway. The doorway led to a bathroom that was the size of a bedroom in a normal house. It was tiled with a shower, a Jacuzzi tub, and the usual sanitary facilities. Katie stripped off her clothing and dumped it in the tub before stepping into the shower.

Randy didn't disappear; he followed her to the shower stall where he watched as Katie rinsed the blood off of her body.

'Care to join me?' Katie teased, giving a roll of her hips.

He shook his head, 'I never liked cold showers.'

'You're dead, you won't feel it.'

'It wouldn't be the same.'

'You swam with me.' Katie protested.

'Yeah, the ocean is large and filled with the souls of the dead. The shower is not.'

'I'm done anyway.' Katie said, rinsing the last of the shampoo out of her hair. She stepped to the side of the shower and grabbed a teak colored towel. Katie dried herself off, wrapped her hair into one towel and her body into another. She turned the water on in the tub and rinsed her clothing well, then wrung it out and rolled it up into a third towel she took from the linen closet.

'Do you just bet the laundry room is downstairs?'

'A good bet. There won't be a basement this close to the ocean; the water table is too high.'

Katie found the wash room tucked away at the back corner of the house and tossed her wet clothing into the dryer.

'Forty minutes and I will be good to go.'

'You didn't even wash it, you just rinsed it.'

'So sue me. I got the blood out and I am not sure when Sentry is coming home.'

'I'm glad you brought that up Katie. What are we doing here again?'

'I just…feel I need to be here.'

'Bullshit.'

'Well, what else am I going to do?'

'Find an island somewhere, boat out there and ride this thing out?' suggested Randy.

'How about I kill this bastard first and then do that?'

'You are good. You can't tell me why you are here and refuse to think about it.'

'A woman's prerogative.'

'Bullshit.'

'I better check my guns. Make sure everything is ready for the good doctor when he arrives home.'

'This is bullshit.'

'Go away Randy. I'll talk to you after.'

Randy faded away like the fog he was, leaving Katie struggling not to think about what he had said.

Chapter 30 — Max

The zombie who was aiming her rifle at Stewart collapsed in a spray of bone fragments and dark, sticky blood. Her gun slipped from nerveless fingers as Stewart's shoulders sagged in relief.

'About fucking time, Max!' Stewart said, only to turn and see Ruben standing with his gun still aimed in the zombie's general direction. 'Ruben?'

The old man nodded. 'Your boyfriend and Bill are having a little pow-wow back at the car park.'

'So you can see zombies too?'

'No. I just followed the swear words. They usually lead to you. I'm glad I could help out.'

'Well, thank you.' Stewart said, a little gruffly.

Ruben eyed the thick vegetation around them uneasily, 'We should get out of here, I don't like being somewhere they can jump us so easily.'

'Uphill gets us back to the state patrol building.' said Stewart pointing up the slope.

'Yeah, I didn't get lost walking thirty yards into the woods to save you, believe it or not.'

'I believe it. Sorry, I was just trying to be helpful.'

'Forget about it.'

The two climbed the hill and came upon Max and Bill arguing to their left as they emerged onto the thin strip of grass between the building and the edge of the woods.

'Now what?' asked Stewart.

'Max has something on his mind. It sounds like that sort of argument.'

Stepping over to the other two Stewart could tell Ruben was right. Both men stopped talking as they were approached.

'What? Is there trouble with the bro-mance?' Stewart asked.

Max smiled, but Bill scowled and said, 'No, just a disagreement.' Doing a double take, Bill went on, 'Ruben. I didn't even see you leave.'

'Well, you two were arguing and I thought someone should cover Stewart's back. What were you two bickering about?'

Max looked at Bill and back to Ruben. 'Nothing much. We were talking about the mission and trying to figure out what to do.'

'Or if we should do it. I'm sorry Ruben, I was all set to keep going without Max, but now I wonder at the sense of it all, especially with Javier down. It's just the four of us against a bunch of the toughest zombies. Not just tough zombies, but the ones who started this mess? Maybe we should pack it in.' said Bill.

'Hallelujah. Let's load up and head home. Let the Drapers of this world deal with the heavy lifting.' Ruben said.

Max shook his head, 'Go if you want to, but I am going on. We went through this already, before we even left Lake Michigan. Any of you could have backed out then, but you chose to come. What has changed? Javier is incapacitated? Did you really think we would all make it through? I didn't. Which is why I was more than half hoping you four wouldn't come along.'

'No, we are in it until you say 'stop', Max.' said Bill. His face was downcast with a slight frown, 'I just don't know when that will be. Maybe when Stewart dies? Or I do?'

'Maybe, but probably not. I think if I am the one to die that you should turn around and head home, unless someone else can figure out how to find the bad guy. All we have to do is get within a hundred yards of the bad guy and blow him up. We don't have to talk to him. I plan on getting close to wherever he is, dropping the backpack nearby, setting the timer and running like my ass is on fire and my testicles are catching.'

'Nice speech, Max. I'll give you that.' Stewart said, 'But if you die, do you think we'd really be able to go back and face your kids? I mean, maybe Ruben and Javier could, but I've been with you since this started and Bill is your best friend, neither of us could live with ourselves if something like that happened. No offense old man.'

'None taken. I would go back, someone has to tell them what happened.'