that time I have never known you to let someone down who was depending on you.”
“This is different.”
“Yes, the stakes are higher. This is life and death. If we don't make a stand here then we die. Sure some small groups of people may live out behind the zombies, but they won't last long, this is our best chance to live.”
Max stopped and then looked down at the table. “I don't want to go.”
“Well shit, who does?” said Stewart, “Do you think I want to run up to Chicago through a horde of zombies to take on a super boss zombie master? Look at what happened in Denver, they needed a nuke to take the fucker out.”
Max raised his head, “You aren't going.” he said to Stewart.
“The hell I ain't. Someone has to save your ass.” she smiled at him, knowing he was going to make the trip after all.
“What if I agree to go, but only if you will stay here to look after the kids?”
“Max, I am not their mom. In fact I am not even mother material. I won't be their surrogate parent.”
“But you….”
The tension in the air became palatable and Trisha realized for the first time that there was something other than friendship between Max and Stewart.
“Oh my God!” she said, then brought her hand up over her mouth.
“Aw fuck! Sorry Trish.” Max said quickly.
“Jesus H. Christ! You two are sleeping together!”
“It isn't like that.”
“It isn't?” asked Stewart.
“I mean it is, but not like what Trisha thinks.” said Max blushing furiously.
Trisha put her hand down and fixed Max with a stern gaze, “Sarah hasn't even been dead a month Max! Not one fucking month!”
“I….” Max began to be interrupted by Stewart.
“This isn't Max's fault. I jumped him.”
“You stay out of it! I don't fault you, you weren't married.” Trisha pointed at Max, “He was and I think having your wife die deserves a little more time than jumping into bed with the first woman that comes along.” Turning back to Max she asked, “Have there been others?”
“No. I….”
“Didn't get the chance yet?” Trisha asked.
“No. I….Look Trish, it just happened okay.” Inside Max was seething, he tried not to let it show, but Trisha picked up on his emotions. He could not think of anything to say that didn't sound like a pathetic excuse for sleeping with another woman five days after his wife died. Max wavered between feeling defensive because Trisha hadn't been through what he had over the last two weeks and feeling guilty over what he had done. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and just said nothing at all.
They lapsed into an awkward silence, Stewart seemed to be the least ill at ease of all of them and finally she spoke, “I am going. With or without you. I may not be able to sense the dead like you can, but I am not incompetent. Are you going to come with me?”
“Apt choice of words.” Trisha said bitterly.
Stewart laughed, “I doubt we'll have time. We need to leave and leave soon.” at that moment the front door banged open and they heard some of the kids spilling into the house.
“I told you to stay outside until we were done talking.” yelled Trisha.
Little Max and Nick rushed into the kitchen, with Bill's son saying, “The army is here mom!”
“What?”
“Yeah a car pulled up and army guys got out, we came to tell you. John is talking to them now.”
“Okay we better go see what they want.”
What they wanted was Max.
Chapter 30
Kimberly Tania Tucker took careful aim with her rifle and slowly squeezed the trigger. The zombie she had picked out of the crowd fell silently and disappeared under the feet of his fellows. Kim ducked down behind the low wall of the building she was on, taking care to keep the long silencer on the end of her rifle from banging into anything. The silencer was not held onto the end too well and even a slight bump could cause it to shift, which would mean more work before she took her next shot. Further down along the same wall was her spotter Randy Stevens, he nodded to her, indicating the zombie had stayed down and he had confirmed the kill. A fiber optics cord was fed over the top of the wall allowing him to view the scene without exposing himself to the enemy. Too many military teams had already disappeared here in Chicago and this pair had no desire to join the ranks of the missing.
“Looks like you got him Katie.” 'Katie' for the initials of her first two names, she liked the acronym and as a nickname it worked better than something like 'horse' or 'spud'. “Ammo check.” Randy said, his voice very official.
Katie pulled the box of rounds out of her belt pouch strapped to her back and visually scanned the number of bullets she had remaining, “I have nineteen in the magazine, and twenty three more in the box. Subsonics, that is. I also have another box of twenty six hundreds.” 'Another box' meant fifty more bullets. The subsonic bullets were designed for covert work, to travel under the speed of sound and when combined with the sound suppressor at the end of her rifle, the shots were inaudible. Unlike in the movies a silencer was only effective with bullets that didn't break the speed of sound. The twenty six hundreds she had mentioned would be loud and were supposed to be used when discretion was no longer needed. The two of them had burned through a box of subsonics already and were starting to get nervous because their helicopter pickup had not arrived.
“Any word?” Katie asked Randy.
“Nothing.”
She had to ask, only Randy had a radio and it was piped through the headphones that he wore. Randy needed the radio more than she did, he was the forward observer and called in artillery from the support battery that was located outside of the city. The navy had sailed an old frigate into lake Michigan, parking it just over the horizon, theoretically Randy could call it for fire support too. So far his requests for pickup had all been denied without explanation, but the army still answered his calls to drop artillery on the enemy whenever he spotted a likely looking group of zombies that needed blowing up.
“They are leaving us high and dry.” Katie said.
“Hey all those months you sat and collected a paycheck? Well now you have payback for that.”
“I shoulda been paid more.”
“Woman sniper, one of the very few and the very proud? Someone like you got paid enough if you ask me.”
“Watch it Randy, I'm the one with the gun.”
Technically this wasn't true, Randy had an M-16 with several clips of ammunition and Katie had a light pistol clipped to her belt, but both laughed at the weak joke.
“What are we going to do?” Randy asked.
“Dunno, why you asking me?”
“You outrank me. I think we are going to die.”
“Maybe you will, me I plan to live to give my momma the grandchildren she's always wanted.”
“With me?”
This subject too, had come up a lot between them lately; they had been lovers the last six months and Randy was pressing to make their relationship something more than the 'fuck-buddies' that Katie was comfortable
