“Hey Mr. Dad.”
“Maybe we should just stick with Dad.” He smiled sheepishly. Chocolate cake and strawberry frosting lined his chin like a beard. “Listen Tommy, I just want you to know, I’ll never be your father.” His brow furrowed. “But I’ll always be your Dad.” His cheesecake lined smile was all the confirmation I needed that I had made the right decision. The hug he administered was just the cherry on the top.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - JOURNAL ENTRY 12 - 
I was itching in a couple or three different ways. I had an itch to get back on the road and away from sanctuary, call me crazy. Maybe I was becoming an adrenaline junky, I needed the drama of action in my life. No, that was crap, the simple fact of knowing that my family was safer now than at any time since the zombies came, was comforting. I had massive itching going on around my shoulder, but this was a deep tissue itching. No matter how desperately I tried to rake through the top layers of my skin, I was not going to get that satisfying sweet spot. You know, that point when you finally get at a difficult location on your body and just scratch that itch into oblivion. Oh, it is such sweet, sweet delight.
That wasn’t to be my lot. I had flakes of epidermis piling up under my fingernails. It was actually kind of gross. Doc Baker had become so concerned he had even placed me back on my blessed pain meds. Hey, I’m not an addict, but I like a good high as much as the next guy. I had another itch too, well maybe more like a tickle, a psychic tickle. It was way back in my head but it was ominous and it kept telling me to get long gone. I would have heeded it too, no matter what my wife said, but every extra day I could give BT and myself to heal up improved all of our chances of survival. Besides my true life ‘shit’ forecaster (Tommy) didn’t seem in any rush to leave. Of course that might have more to do with the 24-hour chow hall and the truly unbelievably delicious apple turnover they made here, than with any inherent danger that may or may not be coming.
When I got up for the 47th time and jammed my shoulder into the corner of the door using it like a large scratching post, Tracy had had enough.
“Get your jacket.” Tracy said.
“But it’s freezing out.” I replied lamely.
“Hence the jacket.” She retorted.
I was moments away from a not so manly whining. Tracy could sense it coming and was having none of it.
“Now, Talbot.”
“Fine.” I answered like a petulant 8-year old. Again not a finer moment for me, but even the Percocets were doing little to eradicate the discomfort of my healing shoulder, and Tracy will attest to the fact that I am a horrible ‘sick’ person.
“Where are we going?” I asked, resigned to the fact that we were going out no matter what.
“The beach.”
“The beach? You say that like this is Hawaii. It’s gotta be 10 degrees out there with a wind chill of something like 10 below.”
“Yeah, I know that.” She answered flatly.
“You hate the cold.” I was trying desperately to get out of this field trip.
“I hate you getting up a couple of hundred times every hour, more.”
“Forty-seven.”
“Forty-seven what?”
“I got up forty-seven times.”
She looked at me incredulously. “You counted?” She shook her head. “Forget it, you need this diversion as much as I do. Maybe you’ll be too cold to want to scratch.”
“Yeah, probably because my blood will congeal.”
“Ha ha, we’re still going. Get your jacket.”
I turned to grab my jacket off the peg, stopping only once to rub up against the hook.
“Talbot!”
“Fine! But if you weren’t my wife I’d tell you a thing or two.” My voice had been trailing off since the first word, so that I had ended on a mumble.
“What was that?” Tracy asked.
“Yes dear.”
“I thought that’s what you said.”
The short walk to the shoreline was actually invigorating. The cold air was refreshing. The monster irritation in my shoulder was tamed to a minor troll. I felt slightly naked not carrying my AR but base rules prohibited the carrying of rifles. Pistols were alright and actively encouraged. I carried both my Glock 9mm and my Smith and Wesson .357. Tracy was actually carrying a Walther 9mm. She made me so proud, had I not been on a military base with so many military personnel around I might have shed a tear of pride.
We walked completely ignored by the myriad of soldiers that passed us. We were just a couple of refugees in an ever-growing community. I wondered how long the resources on hand would be able to sustain this impromptu base, and then as quickly as the thought popped up it blew away. I planned on being long gone before that ever became an issue.
We reached the shoreline. A few miserable looking guards patrolled the beach looking for any wayward zombies. I didn’t see how that was going to happen though. The bay had frozen solid since the last time zombies had come ashore. There were a bunch of kids actually playing hockey a hundred or so yards off shore. The scene was serene, almost idyllic, Norman Rockwell-ish.
“Travis should be out there.” Tracy said pointing to the 20 or so kids skating around in the semblance of a game.
My nerves pulled tight. I don’t know why but the Hershey squirts would have been denied passage, my sphincter had slammed so tightly shut. I go over these things again and again, not even sure if I should keep flagging my ‘not so proud’ moments. Did I fear he would fall through the ice? That seemed unfounded, considering that there were at least ten or more hummers driving near the ice water freeze line. The ice had to be at least 18 inches to support that weight and the vehicles were at least another hundred or so yards past the kids.
“Why are they so far from shore?” I fairly begged of Tracy.
“Relax, Talbot. Travis told me that the ice was a lot smoother out there.”
“You knew?” I nearly yelled.
“What’s the matter with you?” She asked.
“I don’t fucking know!” I said as I started to speed walk nearly busting out into a sprint.
“Talbot don’t you go out there all willy-nilly, you’ll embarrass him.”
“Fine.” I said, doing everything in my power to keep my muscles from firing at full tilt.
We were half way to the kids when I felt a tremor.
“Did you feel that?” I said as I stopped and turned to Tracy who was hastening to catch up.
“Feel what?” Tracy said catching her breath as she pulled up alongside. “I thought I told you no running.”
“That.” I said as another minor quake erupted under our feet.
“That’s probably just the humvees.” Tracy said. I don’t think she even believed the words as she spoke them.
The roar as ice began to crack was unnerving. Brontosaurus leg bones snapping under sound amplification could not have competed with the blistering reverberation. Everything and everybody became as frozen as the landscape around us. That false harmony ended quickly and badly as first one and then another hummer sank into the fracturing ice. Kids, hyper aware of danger, were not slow to react. The majority of them had already closed half the distance to Tracy and I as the second hummer finished its icy descent into hell. Tracy started running out towards Travis. I got up to her and grabbed her arm.
“Forget him!” I yelled.
“Are you out of your mind?!” She screamed trying to tug her arm away.
“Shit I didn’t mean it like that, he’s on skates, he’s going to pass us by in a few seconds. Us on the other hand, need to start running back NOW!” I yelled as I pulled her towards shore. She didn’t need any more prodding
