teenager, those don’t even compare. I feel like something deep in my mind has decided it wants out and it is going to crack my head wide open to do it.” Alex was alarmed. Marta sometimes had a flair for the dramatic but he was not picking that vibe up right now. That she was in immense pain was clearly evident, the whites of her eyes were filled with red lines and he felt powerless to do anything about it. Paul had come up to the doorway of the room the Carbonaras were staying in. The abandoned school that they had sought refuge in had been a perfect fit. Plenty of room and plenty of canned goods in the cafeteria, although there was a reason school food was so horrible, it was of extremely low quality. The words ‘Grade E but edible’ adorned more than one label.
Paul wore a look of concern. Marta’s headaches had become more frequent and more intense. His initial thought was ‘tumor’ but he didn’t think their chances of finding a neurologist were so good.
Much like a migraine, all that seemed to help Marta was extreme dark and extreme quiet. Alex met Paul at the doorway and closed it behind him. Before they had walked more than a pace, Marta’s voice floated out to them and froze them both in place. “The darkness matches the void where her soul should be.” Paul could not contain the shiver that started at the base of his spine and like an insidious spider crawled all the way up to his brain stem, all eight legs caressing his creep factor.
“She does not know what she is talking about,” Alex told Paul, an insincere smile splashed across his face.
Paul thought otherwise.
CHAPTER SEVEN – Talbot Journal Entry 5
“Honey I’m sorry,” I told Tracy for the fifth time. Dammit, I hate groveling, well maybe I actually love it, I put myself in enough of these situations where it’s my only avenue of escape. “Hon, look at me. I feel for these kids, I really do, that’s why I don’t want to take them with us.” Tracy did finally look at me. “You’re right.”
She could have punched me square in the gut and not gotten the same effect. We had been married twenty something years and I could count on one finger how many times she had told me I was right. “Wait, what? Could you maybe say that again?” “Don’t push it Mike,” she snapped.
Gary was nodding behind her.
“They need to go to Ron’s,” she said triumphantly.
It was a brilliant idea. Ron would take them in without even blinking. “Hey, which of you guys has a driver’s license?” I asked the three boys hopefully.
“I have a permit,” Dizz answered, obviously feeling self-important.
“Mike, that’s not what I meant. How much have you driven, Dizz?” Tracy asked.
“I pulled out of the driveway once. Clipped the mailbox and then my dad made me get out, he was not happy,” Dizz answered, his inflated importance quickly deflating.
“Dad!” Justin yelled from the front doors.
“Company?” I asked.
He nodded in return.
Gary grabbed his gear and ran to the front. “Fifteen, nope sixteen.” I could see him doing quick calculations in his head. “Scratch that, eighteen, oh where’d that one come from, nineteen. Does a crawler count, because that would make it twenty,” “I get it, there’s a bunch,”
“Yeah, ‘bunch’ will work,” Gary said, staring out the window intently.
“Couple of speeders, mostly deaders though,” Justin clarified.
“Thank God for small favors,” I said resignedly.
“Hi pretty lady. Can I get back in your arms?” Angel asked Tracy .
Tracy reached down and plucked the small child up. “Mike, I am not going to entrust these kids to a kid whose driving experience involves backing up in a driveway.” “Umm, it’s a very long driveway,” Ryan said, trying to help his friend recover some of his lost ego.
“Okay, so his main experience is driving down a very
“Twenty-five yards, Dad,” Travis said as he took position next to his brother and uncle.
“We need to take them, Mike,” Tracy told me.
That was the most sound idea, it really was. But I felt like Big Ben was ticking in my head, that elusive concept called time was slipping through my fingers. I, we, could not afford to lose the two days it would take to get them back and then us back on track. ‘Crap ,’ I thought angrily. Leaving these kids here was a death sentence plain and simple. Bringing them forward was a painful death sentence. Bringing them to Ron’s was their only chance.
I loved Tracy for a myriad of reasons. She knew the math I was going through in my head, so she solved the problem for me. “I’ll take them back.” I was elated, I was depressed. The kids would be safe, my beloved would be safe, we would never see each other again. I hugged her just as our defensive gunfire erupted. Twenty zombies, three skilled marksmen, they should be able to make short work of it.
“Alright you guys,” I said, turning to the kids. “Grab all the crap you want to bring with you. We’re getting out of here.” Angel jumped down from Tracy’s arms and into her brother’s arms. “We’re going home Eyean!” she said excitedly.
CHAPTER EIGHT – BT and Meredith (Plus One)
BT and Meredith had not been on the road more than a couple of hours when Meredith looked over towards BT for the fifth time, each time rolling her window down an inch or two more.
BT on as many occasions stole a sideways glance towards Meredith. He grimly did his best to cover his nose discreetly during the more noxious outbursts.
By the sixth time he could not take it. “What did your aunt make you eat? Damn it girl!” “Excuse me?!” she answered indignantly.
“Smells like pickled weasel in here. What the hell did you eat?”
“Me?? I thought that seat belt was so tight it was cutting your large intestine in half and it was leaking.” “So it isn’t you?” BT asked.
“God no! I thought you must be dying!”
“Pull over, I know of only one thing on this planet that could do
“Well son of a bitch. Hi Henry!” BT uttered genially.
Meredith was peering over the seat. “How the hell did he get in there? Should we take him back?” “Naw,” BT said, affectionately rubbing the dog’s proffered belly. “I’ve got a hunch he’s supposed to be here.”
CHAPTER NINE – Talbot Journal Entry 6
Gary, Travis and Justin came in a few minutes later.
“All set?” I asked as I finished packing up the radio.
“Yeah,” Travis said, a little flushed.
Gary responded by turning his head and vomiting into a convenient trash receptacle, and Justin resumed his vigil at the front window.
“Won’t be too long Dad before we get some more company,” Justin said.
“Yup, time has her finger in everybody’s pie,” I responded, my thoughts clouded with worry and anger.
Justin looked at me funny.
“Did I say that out loud?” I went outside, the putrid stink of the dead assailing my nostrils. “Oh yeah, that never gets old,” I said sarcastically. I walked over to the gas pumps looking over the abandoned cars. The third one I looked at was perfect, mainly for the reasons that the keys were hanging in the ignition and the tank was mostly full.
I had thought foolishly a few months ago that the parting with Paul and Alex was bad. That was topped tenfold when I left the East Coast Talbots, but that paled in comparison to what I was feeling now. I am not a
