'Should I turn around?' he asked Marta.
'I still do not think he would come with us, that Michael Talbot has some sort of hold over him,' she said, Michael's name coming out more like a swear word than a means of identification.
Alex didn't think that was the case at all, more like the polar opposite, but he was not going to fight with his wife. The last time he had won she wasn't even there. It had been more of a moral victory. 'I meant more along the lines of going with them.'
Marta did not answer for a few ticks longer than was expected in the situation. He held out hope that she might be considering his request. That was a short lived dream. She turned to look at him, dark ringed eyes narrowed to half their normal size, her nostrils flared open, her mouth pinched down to a line. It was not an attractive pose, it was no 'Magnum' from Zoolander. Alex had seen it twice before. Once when the youngest had just been born and he told her that he and a bunch of friends were going to a strip joint, and the second time had been when he told Marta the day before, his mother came to visit for two weeks. Those two transgressions had cost him dearly in kowtowing and flowers. And right now he wouldn't be able to make amends because he hadn't seen a florist in months.
'Michael Talbot is the devil,' she spat. 'Death has gotten fat and lazy merely following in Michael's wake. Is it not bad enough he has taken my nephew into the depths of el infierno with him. You do not think that is payment enough?! You think he needs to have our two pequenos also?' She was fairly crying now. 'El es el Diablo,' she muttered, making the sign of the Trinity on her chest.
Marta only reverted to her native tongue under times of great distress. The three days after the zombie invasion were laden with a steady stream of the Rosary Prayer's, Our Father's and Hail Mary's. He even thought he recognized some paganism mixed in and they were all in Spanish. No, going back to find Mike was not going to be an option, unless of course he could come across an industrial sized bottle of Ambien. He could slip a few in her water every day, what she didn't know... 'Yeah and when she finally woke up and realized what was happening she'd slip a nail file through the small of my back,' he thought. It still seemed like the right thing to do, even if he could almost feel the grooved surface of the small metal utensil dragging against the jagged edges of his lacerated vertebrae.
After another hour of uncomfortable silence Alex pulled the truck over. Marta merely looked over at him. 'Bathroom break,' he said as he slid out of the truck.
They had no sooner come to a complete stop then Paul rolled open the big door in the back. He jumped down and began popping and stretching his back and legs, his gun left forgotten within the confines of the trailer. Alex couldn't help but remember that Mike's first priority every time they stopped was to check the integrity of their perimeter. Paul could have been eaten twice before he finished his routine.
'Hey Alex,' Paul said, bending at the waist to stretch out his hamstrings.
'Just what I wanted to see… your ass,' Mrs. Devereaux said as she reached the edge of the trailer. 'Are you going to keep pretending you're a 25 year old athlete or are you going to help me down off this truck?'
Paul stood up, looking straight at Alex. 'She hasn't quit bitching for the last three hours.'
Alex was extremely thankful he was the only one that knew how to drive the truck. The punishment he took steering the big rig was paltry compared to being stuck in the back with that witch.
'I wish that BT fellow were still here,' she started. 'Those blacks know how to drive. Mexicans on the other hand…' she finished off by looking straight at Alex.
'You're welcome,' Alex said, walking away. Alex wished she
Erin, Paul's wife, ultimately helped Mrs. Devereaux off the truck. 'You could have done better, my dear,' Mrs. Devereaux said to her.
'You're welcome,' Erin replied exasperatedly.
Joann, then Jodi, the young mother with three kids, came next. April, whose last amorous affair ended in the death of her latest fling, only came out when she was absolutely sure no one was getting eaten. April hadn't slept well in days; her eyes looked like she had already ended up as the trailer trash she was destined to become, and her abusive husband with the wife beater t-shirt had once again shown her the business end of his knuckles.
Alex couldn't help but feel that he was on the end of a practical joke gone completely awry. He had willingly left a trained Marine, his two crack shot sons, the largest man he had ever seen in his life and a boy who might have a direct connection to Dios, for this rag tag group. He shook his head. He had to go back, this was a death sentence. Marta would have to listen to him and she may have, if what happened next never transpired. The next few moments, ultimately made him forget to even bring it up.
Alex rounded the truck to find Jodi and her three kids, Eddy who was 8, his younger sister Renee 4 and their infant sister Penelope, but something wasn't quite right. Her kids were up against the truck and she was a few feet away sobbing uncontrollably. The revelation struck Alex immediately but still ultimately too late. It was a firing squad, composed of a deranged mother and her unsuspecting children. She had grabbed a pistol from the small arsenal they possessed in the trailer and was waving it around violently.
'God has forsaken us,' she said to Alex.
'Wait Jodi there's still…'
'Hope?' she laughed. 'Not for us. We're dead already. We just haven't realized our true potential yet. I will not allow my children to become those demons,' she said, referring to the zombies.
Alex wondered if that was what they truly were. 'Jodi, don't do this. They're your children. For the love of God...'
'You don't understand, Alex, I'm doing it FOR the love of God.'
Paul rounded the corner to see what was happening. 'Holy shit!'
Her eyes barely glanced over towards him. Her attention swung back to her children, who were becoming increasingly distraught over the amount of emotions being issued forth, even if they didn't understand what was truly happening.
'Mom, I'm scared,' Jodi's oldest son Eddy said. 'Can we come with you?' he said, referring to bridging the physical gap between them now.
'Oh honey, we are all gonna be going together,' she said, referring to something much vaster and catastrophic.
'Jodi wait!' Alex shouted, fearful that the conclusion to this macabre scene was rapidly approaching.
'Don't you dare come any closer!' she yelled shrilly.
By now all of the occupants of the truck were behind Paul watching in grisly fascination. Even Mrs. Devereaux, who always found a way to interject the wrong word at the wrong moment, was silent.
Erin came to the forefront. 'Jodi, those are your children and you're scaring them.' By now all three of the children were crying inconsolably.
'This is for their own good, Erin,' Jodi said clearly.
'What is for their own good?' Erin asked with alarm in her voice.
Jodi never answered directly, she let the roar of her gun finish her statement. Alex didn't know whether to turn and run away or run forward to stop the travesty as it was taking place. One second a gurgling crying rotund bundle of joy disintegrated into a burst form of human parts and down feathers as the sleeping bag he was swaddled in ruptured. Jodi's gun did not stop as she swung it slightly to the left and drove a bullet into the awaiting mouth of her daughter. The look of betrayal was immediately wiped clean from Renee's face as the back of her head erupted onto the trailer bed. The gun roared again as Eddy ducked under the truck, the bullet coming dangerously close to his leg.
It was April that reacted the quickest, knocking Jodi off of her feet. The gun went off one more time. April rolled over covered in blood, none of which was hers. Jodi lay still, a fatal wound pumping out her life, one heartbeat at a time.
Her eyes shifted over to April's. 'Do you smell rotten eggs?' and said no more.
'Brimstone,' Mrs. Devereaux said, her eyes as large as saucers.
Eddy had buried himself deep into Joann's midriff. They were both shaking.
Paul's face nearly matched the color of the snow. 'Do we bury them? Do we have shovels?' Then he threw up.
'We will place them in the snow and say a prayer. It is the best we can offer them right now,' Alex said.
Paul managed to nod in agreement, even with his head between his legs. Alex held it in as he dragged Jodi
