“You could say that,” I answered, showing him the empty revolver.
“Oh, I knew that all along,” he said seriously.
I couldn’t tell if he was being truthful or just trying to save face. Ryan stepped hesitantly up to where we were.
“You’re fine, kid, we probably don’t fit the definition of Good Guys but we sure as hell aren’t the bad ones.” He seemed to relax a bit, especially when he saw how Angel had taken to Tracy .
“Can we come out Ryan?” another voice from the shadows asked.
I grabbed my rifle and slung it over my shoulder.
“Can they mister?” Ryan asked warily.
“It’s Mike and yes, this is
“It’s alright guys,” Ryan said.
Three more kids came out from behind the end aisle cap. They were all roughly the same age as Ryan. One was a little taller and looked to be suffering greatly from their gas station food diet. Drakes Cakes were playing hell on his acne. I hadn’t noticed before but Ryan, Angel and the other three castaways were filthy, they looked like orphans from 18th century France . Apparently 21st century America wasn’t as far removed from those troubled times as we had hoped to believe.
“How many more of you are there?” I asked Ryan.
“This is it,” he said with downcast eyes. “Benny and Chirp went home when the end started and they haven’t been back. Dizz and me,” he said, pointing to the aforementioned face-pocked tall kid. “We went to look for them a couple of weeks ago and maybe see what happened to our parents,” he added softly. Angel had finally unburied her face from Tracy ’s chest and was listening intently.
“How far away do you live from here?” I asked.
“Not very, from the back of this rest area you go through the fence, a small woods and then we’re about two streets away. “Half mile maybe?” he asked his friends, looking for validation.
One of the dirtier kids (who was aptly named Sty) just shrugged his shoulders. “Guess so,” he answered in that typical dripping with contempt teenager way.
“What were you guys doing out here?” I asked, just to change the subject. He had lost at least two friends and his parents and probably didn’t want to rehash that again.
“We were sledding, there’s an awesome hill right at the fence,” Ryan said with a ghost of a smile on his face.
“And this store used to have the best chocolate milk,” Dizz added a little melancholy .
“I drank the last one,” Angel said. “Dizz gave it to me. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Dizz said, a little embarrassed.
“Our mom was going to get her hair done,” Ryan said. “She told me I had to take Ang with us if I wanted to go out.” “Daddy wasn’t feeling good, he was cranky and had gone to sleep,” Angel added for good measure.
My immediate thought was that he had been infected. Ryan must have been able to see the wheels spinning in my head, he nodded in assertion to my unspoken words.
“I had just come back up the slope and was waiting for my turn when I heard a bunch of horns and some skidding,” Ryan said.
“And then a lot of crashy noises,” Angel said, placing her hands over her ears as if it was happening now.
“Zombies just started walking out into the roadway. I mean, we didn’t know they were zombies then. It was horrible, trucks and cars were just plowing into them or crashing into the guardrail or each other trying to avoid them. But that wasn’t the worst part.” “Don’t Eyean,” Angel begged, trying to bury her head and her thoughts deep down.
“Well anyway,” Ryan started back up, leaving out the gorier details for the sake of his sister, and I guess for all of us actually. “We watched, we just couldn’t believe what was happening.” Angel groaned. “Customers and people that worked here they all left, I mean in a hurry, and the zombies pretty much followed them. I know it was wrong but we,” and he made sure to point at all of the guilty parties. “We just had to come in and take a look.” An untended store as a teenager, that’s a no-brainer. I would have ransacked the hell out of the place. It’s in my nature.
Ryan looked at me to see if I was holding judgment over his actions. “I would have done the same thing,” I told him, and he seemed relieved. Now to clarify, just because I would have done it definitely didn’t make it right, but I decided to not tell him that.
“We were still in here messing around,” he continued.
“And eating stuff,” Dizz added.
Ryan looked over at him crossly. “And yeah, I guess, eating some stuff.”
“A lot of stuff,” Angel said with a big grin.
“I get it, you ate a bunch of stuff,” I said.
“A bunch,” Angel agreed. “And then the army men came.”
“Yeah, they were using huge trucks with plows to push all the cars out of the way,” Dizz said.
“We thought they were coming for us,” Ryan said.
“Yeah, it’s a Capital Offense to steal a Slim Jim,” I said sardonically.
Angel started crying. “Nice one Talbot,” Tracy said, trying to comfort the girl.
“I was just kidding Angel,” I said, trying to placate her. “And how do you know what capital offense means?” “So we were scared,” Ryan continued. “We hid until they had gone by, it was completely dark by then and the power was out. Couldn’t see anything here because there was only a little bit of moonlight. We heard some wicked fighting down the road.” “Guns, grenades, missiles, everything,” Dizz said in fond remembrance. “The sky was pretty bright because of it.” “And smoky,” Angel interjected.
“Yeah, definitely smoky,” her big brother said.
I was going to ask them why they hadn’t gone home at that point. But this wasn’t a difficult puzzle to piece together. The power was out everywhere, no fun being out and about when you can’t even see your hand in front of your face, much less whether zombies are after you. I wouldn’t have taken that chance either.
Ryan continued his narrative. “The next day, early on, we saw some army guys heading back the way they had come and then nothing. No cars, no fighting, nothing. Benny and Chirp said it was time to go.” Ryan looked down at his feet. “Mister, I was scared, for… for my sister.” ‘Nice recovery,’ I thought. Can’t ever show weakness in front of your friends,
“We had been safe in the store the night before, there was no way of telling what was happening outside. They called me chicken but promised they would send help back.” “That was a long time ago,” Angel added softly.
“And have you tried to go home since then?” Tracy asked, her arm still wrapped protectively around Angel.
“Me and Dizz went down the hill and to the edge of the woods a few weeks ago, but all we saw were zombies. I’m pretty sure we could have made it to either of our houses, but I didn’t want to know by that point. My mom knew where we had gone, if she was…” He paused as Angel looked at him. “Um, well, she would have got us if she could, that’s all I meant.” “And you haven’t had any zombies come here?” I asked incredulously.
“Early on there were a few outside, but none ever tried to get in. And then they just started leaving like they were being called or something.” Chills ran up my spine.
“What now?” I asked Ryan.
“Don’t know,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“What do you mean Talbot? We can’t just leave them here!” Tracy said hotly.
“You think taking them with us is the wisest choice?” I said, matching her tone. “You know where we are going, right? Into the damn teeth of the enemy!” Tracy flinched at my outburst. “I think that they’re light years safer here than with us!” Angel started crying. “You’re an asshole Talbot!” Tracy said as she turned and walked away.
“Whatever, I’ve been called worse by better!”
“Dick,” she added, flipping me the bird over her shoulder.
“Geez mister, you sure do have a way with the ladies,” Sty said in wry admiration.
