“There’s always you,” Justin said a little louder than he intended.
“Oh my pet,” Eliza said turning her head to face him. “You do not know what you have thrown asunder. I could have brought you on an incredible journey. You could have danced across the graves of everyone who has ever wronged you.” Justin pulled his gaze from Eliza. She laughed. “Silly boy, it is a shame you will never see the dawn of a new day.”
“I will fight Durgan,” I said.
“No Talbot,” Tracy said obstinately.
“Hush,” I said, putting my finger to her lips and hoping she wouldn’t bite it off. “I will fight Durgan but when I kill that asshole, we ALL leave unharmed and unpursued.” (Now that I said and wrote that word I’m not sure if it’s actually a Webster’s Dictionary approved word. Oh well, it’s not like anyone besides me will ever see this.)
“Those were not our original terms,” Eliza said.
“It’s called leverage Eliza. I have a little bit and I plan on using it.”
“If anyone on your side should step in and alter the outcome, our agreement will be null,” Eliza said, speaking directly to BT.
“No one will,” I said turning to face my friend.
“What? I haven’t even done anything,” BT said guiltily.
“And you won’t, right?” I asked him.
“But what if he’s beating the crap out of you, can’t I at least kill him before they get us?” BT asked. I gave him the sternest look I could muster, but it didn’t do much considering it was aimed at his sternum. “Alright, I won’t do anything even if your spindly ass is getting spanked and or demolished,” he grudgingly conceded.
“Thanks man,” I said sarcastically. “Eliza, do you agree to this?”
“I will let everyone including yourself leave here unharmed, IF you kill him.”
“What about not pursuing us?”
“That will be my leverage Michael. You can all leave here and I will let you go, but not forever.”
“Don’t take the deal, Dad,” Travis entreated.
“I welcome the opportunity to put a spike through your chest, Eliza,” I told her. Eliza sneered. “Swear it, Eliza.”
“I swear it on the Blood Locket, Michael.”
“Tomas?” I asked.
“She is bound,” Tomas said.
I pulled the locket from the barrel of the shotgun where I had stowed it once the zombies stopped approaching. Eliza gasped.
“It would have been the first thing destroyed,” I told her.
Eliza walked purposefully over to me and took the locket from my extended arm, making certain that her ice cold touch came in contact with my hand.
“We could still have some fun,” Eliza told me as she kept her hand wrapped around my wrist.
“I’ve already dated enough cold heartless bitches in my lifetime, thank you very much,” I said, trying to control the fear that was threatening to run away with my nerve.
“Very well. It is a beautiful day to die,” she said as she released her grip.
“I’d actually prefer a good rainstorm, maybe some hail and a crap load of lightning. It’s that whole flair for the dramatic,” I told her.
“Even at the end, you jest. You are a unique individual, Michael. I will almost miss you.”
“My mother told me that once.” It was the first thing I could think of.
“Dude?” Paul said.
“Too far?” I asked him.
“A little bit.”
“You will surrender your weapons now,” Eliza said as she stepped back next to Tomas.
“Whoa, that wasn’t part of the agreement,” I told her.
“Yes, as a matter of fact it was. When you die, the rest of your group will surrender to me. With their weapons they will not be so willing to follow through.”
“I say we just go out fighting now Mike,” Brian said.
A few others thought the same.
“We voted on this already, either we’re all in or we’re all out. I’m prepared to fight to the end by myself or with all of you by my side.”
More zombies began to funnel through the breech point in response to Brian’s call to arms.
“We’ve voted,” Alex said. “With Mike we have a chance. I’ve said my piece and I am at peace with the decision. I am prepared to meet my Maker.”
“I’m not sure if I should be honored or not with that comment Alex.”
Alex shrugged his shoulders.
“Well at least you clarified that, buddy,” I told him.
The small pile of rifles and pistols we produced could have kept a guerilla unit in Southern Peru stocked for a few years. I honestly don’t know how we could have carried all this armament and still move effectively. Now I know why the ladder bowed so much under BT. Sure, a good part of it was his bulk, the rest had to do with the two rifles and three pistols he contributed to the pile, plus the five hundred or so rounds he had stashed on him at various locations on his body.
“Got anything else on you?” I asked him softly, pretty much just kidding.
When he smiled at me diffidently, I didn’t even want to know where that one might be hidden, best not to think of things like that.
“I will give you some time to say your prayers to your false God,” Eliza said as she strode back through the roof door, her entourage of zombies on her heels.
“That’s not like her,” BT mused, coming up beside me.
“I agree but there’s no sense in trying to figure it out. A normal woman’s motives would be impossible to figure out.”
“And she’s not normal,” BT concluded.
“Let’s start working on some contingency plans while we have a chance,” I said, getting the group into a circle, except for April who had not yet decided to stop napping.
“What if Durgan beats you?” Perla asked.
“He won’t,” Tracy said.
“Okay, but what if he does?” Perla asked again, “We can’t just leave our fates up to her.”
“Personally, I’d rather let the zombies eat me,” Cindy said.
That’s how you know Eliza is one mean mother, when people would rather get eaten alive than spend any time with her.
“Could we survive a jump off the roof?” Joann asked, “I mean, we’d land on all those zombies below us.”
“And then what?” BT asked peering over the edge. “Even if you didn’t so much as bruise a muscle from the forty foot drop you’d still have to make it through close to a hundred feet of zombies.”
“Plus I’ve got a feeling that we won’t be anywhere near the edge,” Mad Jack said, “Eliza’ll have us surrounded.”
“Okay, who’s got what?” I asked the group as I pulled out a Glock 26 from a concealed holster.
