Extinction Level Event (Book 2): Holding Ground, page 19
part #2 of Extinction Level Event Series
Julio laughed. “He’s got in bad.”
“We gonna build the coffin for him or just cut off his balls and give ’em to her now?”
“Luciana never did that to me.”
“You just weird then.”
“My parents had a good marriage.”
“Must be a Mexican thing.”
“I don’t think it is widespread. Only no one can divorce. We’re Catholic.”
“So?”
“You die out of marriage.”
“Dang!”
Peter walked away along the floating dock.
“Where are you going?” Julio asked.
“To get away from you two.”
“There ain’t nowhere to go,” said Chris. “Unless you wanna make some more noise at the fence and we gotta shoot more zoms.”
“Shit. I’m trapped.”
“Get used to it. That marriage.”
“Shut up,” Julio said.
“I’m just warning the man.”
“It’s not always like that. She’s an intelligent woman.”
“Who got a fucked-up haircut.” Chris laughed. “You hear Miss Mouth say shit about the Girl’s hair? Man, the Girl can handle all this shit, but crying over her hair.”
“I don’t think it’s all about her hair.”
“A lot of women like that.”
“She doesn’t even wear makeup.”
Peter snapped, “Both of you, shut the fuck up.”
“Look, Sul, between the two of us, we got a shitload of unsuccessful years of marriage.”
“I am not taking advice on anything apart from how to kill from you, Chris.”
“Be like that. I’m gonna go inside and laugh at her hair.”
“Don’t laugh at her fucking hair.”
“Thought you didn’t care?”
“Higgins. Leave her alone.” Peter looked to Julio. “I hate him.”
“He’s just trying to get your goat.”
“Well. He can’t have my goat.”
“Do I give you advice at this point or let you figure this out on your own?”
“I didn’t even see it come up on her, Jule.”
“I get that. I’d be losing my shit if that was Luciana.”
“I fucked up so bad.”
“It’s over. Stop tormenting yourself.”
“I’m Catholic. We like doing that.”
“You’re as Catholic as that pelican.”
“You don’t know what that pelican does. Don’t judge.”
Julio’s face broke into a smile. “Come inside. For dinner and to support Pheebs with her new haircut. Mazy’s trying to fix it.”
“She’s not really crying over her hair, is she?”
“I think it’s everything.”
“I’m gonna get Chris tonight.”
“You should.”
Chapter Two
The Thing
1.
Peter found her staring in the bathroom mirror. Knives did not work well for women’s haircuts. Parts stuck out to the side. Uneven chunks. He had loved her mane of hair. It ranked up there with her butt.
She turned and rushed into his arms. He kissed her head and held her tight.
“Sorry,” he said.
“You saved my life.”
He rolled the pocket door closed. “Sorry for everything.”
She saw his sheepish expression. “Did you mean anything you said to me?”
“What part?”
“The fight part?”
“You turned cold on me. What was I supposed to think?”
“That it wasn’t you.”
“Not getting you.”
“You want the list?” She leaned her butt against the sink. Her grounded composure returned. But her eyes retained sadness.
“Uh-oh. There’s a list?”
“Unprotected sex, it begins with. I’m not on the Pill.”
“Oh.” He laughed. “That kind of list. Not about … you know. Like. Me or something.”
“Mazy says you had a reputation.”
“As a totally awesome guy?”
“As a player.”
“Really?”
“Peter, that’s a bad thing.”
His incorrigible ways brightened her face.
“So not.”
“You are impossible.”
“C’mon. You can come up with bigger words than that.”
“Insufferable. Inveterately beyond the pale. Does that work for you?”
“Much better. That’s at least two-dollars’ worth of words.”
“So I defined what I was going through. A little. What about you?”
“Ahhhhh.” He smiled, looking up at the ceiling.
“What’s that?”
“Uhm. I may, possibly, perhaps, feel the thing, uhm, for you, rumor has it.”
She roared with laughter. “Is that …” She couldn’t stop laughing.
“Nice reaction.”
“To that?”
“Wounded here.”
“No.” She tried to stop. “The thing?”
“Yeah. That.”
“Do I guess what the thing is?”
“The thing that has plagued men for hundreds of generations.”
“Plagued?”
“Yes. Absolutely. Plagued. Brought the mighty low.”
“The mighty?”
“Why are you repeating everything I say?”
She stepped close to him and touched his stomach.
“Don’t give me that look,” he said.
“What look?”
“With the eyes.”
“Hard to see without them.”
“Look over there, so I can be the mighty.”
“At what? Your porn in that magazine rack on the wall?”
“Christ. Is that still there? Oops. It’s just Penthouse. That doesn’t count.” He leaned over, grabbed magazines and threw them off to the side. “I read the articles.”
“Sure you do.”
“Very stimulating articles. Oh, Christ. Don’t say what I just stepped into. Is it hot in here?”
She smiled up him.
He touched her hair. “I got some hair product if you want, Roseanne Roseannadanna.”
“I saw those products. I think Tyler may be younger than them.”
“My sister. Caitlyn. Thought I needed help.”
“She didn’t think you were sexy enough without them?”
“Maybe you feel the thing towards me and I’m sexy to you.” He slipped his arms around her waist and locked his fingers at the small of her back.
“Maybe, possibly, uhm.”
“We’ll just go with that.”
He walked her backwards to the sink and kissed her.
“You’re really not on any bitch control?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s a monkey wrench.” He thought. “Where’s my wallet?”
“What’s in there?”
“Every man carries one.”
“Really?”
“But it’s out there. With those people who won’t go away.”
Just as he mentioned them, a bang on the door. “Stop fucking and let other people use the head.” Chris.
“Romantic, my friends are.”
“Aren’t you, too?”
“If I come back from hunting and give you antelope leg, take it as a good thing.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Are you people fucking?”
“No, you reta’ded redneck.”
“Why not?”
“People do talk.”
“That ain’t never done nobody any good.”
“I gotta deal with him. I’ll hit on you later, okay?”
“Okay.”
“With a wallet.”
“That sounds really wrong.”
“You gonna pay her?”
“I hate you, Christopher.”
“Just going on what I’m hearing through this here door. Since y’all just talking. It okay with me if you pay her. Money ain’t worth nothing. But a woman smart to get the money up front. Then a man can just leave. Maybe you can use some canned food instead. Want me to go get you some, Sul? Just a brother looking out for you.”
“Isn’t it her food already?”
“Well, if you gonna point that out with her right there, then you just stupid.”
“She’s pretty smart.”
“That your own problem. Go for them smart girls. Ain’t nothing but trouble. The stupid ones, we could just give her some cans and you be happy.”
“Got it all figured out?”
“Just thinking about what’s best for you, brother. You do know you can’t never fuck on this boat without everybody hearing it, right? We do everything as a team.”
“No, we are not doing that as a team.”
“Can’t even watch?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Mine.”
“Yours?”
“She’s mine. Fuck off.”
“There ya go, son. Now that you got that figured out, get out. I need to take a shit.”
“You got your own boat.”
“You gonna make me walk?”
“Go use your own boat. The cat almost passed out the last time.”
Chris’s laughter grew distant.
“I did the best I could with civilizing him.”
She smiled. “But he’s my second favorite man.”
“Should I be jealous? Totally don’t tell him anything that you feel other than loathe and detest him. Though, I think he’s fond of you, too. If he tells you to hold onto something, run and get me.”
“You guys.”
“We’ve known each other since Christ was a child.”
“Fought all the way back to the Roman legions together?”
“Feels like it.”
A knock. “Other people do need to use this.”
“That’s Ben. He’s a human being. We should relinquish this space.”
“Do you wanna pick up your porn you threw?”
“No. He may need it. Let’s go.”
“Ew.”
“What? You girls got wipies.”
“You use them, don’t lie.”
“Shh. It’s a man secret when we use them.”
Ben yelled through the door, “I intend on using them, so get out.”
“There’s poo involved,” she said. “I must leave.”
“Dead bodies but – “
“Don’t start. I heard it from Julio already.”
He rolled open the door. “Turns out her clown pig is poo.”
“Good to know,” Ben said. He stepped aside for her to leave.
Mazy’s voice laughed from the saloon.
Peter stepped out. “All yours, Sioux warrior.”
“I’d disinfect, but we all heard nothing went on.”
“Like it when my private life is totally public.”
“No secrets here, man.” Ben rolled the door shut and locked it.
Peter turned and saw Matt in the corridor. If looks could kill came to Peter’s mind.
“Matty,” Syanna called from the room. “Are you listening to me?”
Peter smiled to Matt before he turned and took the steps up to the saloon, to face a barrage of mockery.
2.
Chris lit a cigarette. Water sloshed against the floating dock and hulls. Seagulls and the pelican asleep. Crickets in the shrub grass to the sides of the marina. Above, a thin cloud passed across the Big Dipper.
He heard a fish make a splash in the dark water.
But he did not hear what came up behind him. As he bent to see the fish, a man crept up. Chris sensed him and turned. Too late. Peter seized his arm, twisted it as he kicked out his leg. Onto his knees, Peter put a knife to his throat.
“Motherfucker!”
“What kind of shit was that?” Peter let him up.
“Alright. You on, Yankee. We gonna do that again? We gonna do that.”
“Always be ready, big man.”
A female voice laughed. They turned. Helen.
“My son talked about how’d they creep up on each other and attack each other.”
Peter told Chris, “Her son was First Recon.”
Chris stood up. “Fuck. Really? In Iraq? Those some Marines worth a Ranger’s respect.”
“Don’t get him wrong,” Peter told her. “Marines are – “
“He talked about Rangers,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Don’t ‘ma'am’ me, Pete. Chris, would have a cigarette to spare?”
“I sure do, ma’… Helen.”
“Much better.”
Chris lit it for her, using his hand to block the breeze from the dancing flame.
“Wasn’t aware you smoked,” said Peter.
“I did just about everything back in my day.” She blew out smoke and offered a silver flask.
Chris took it and swigged. “Ooh, that the good shit right there.” He handed it to Peter.
“My husband made a good living. We could afford the good shit.” She pulled her long cardigan tighter around her. “The sky is so beautiful since it all happened. I haven’t seen the stars like this since Central America.”
“When were you there?” Chris asked.
“Peace Corps. Once the Vietnam War ended. I joined the Peace Corps.”
“You a righteous hippie then.” He took the flask back from Peter and swigged again.
“I was. Not the free love kind. I wanted to make the world a better place.”
He handed the flask to her. “How’d that go?”
“Pretty shitty. My son and you both were in yet another war. And now look at us all.”
“Where’s he, your son?”
“Back home in New Hampshire. Married to a lovely woman and they have my two adorable grandchildren.”
Chris looked up to the sky. “Sure is beautiful.”
She touched his back and rubbed. “They’re alive, Chris. Your children. I believe that too.”
“Thank you. Maybe they looking up at the same sky now?”
“They are.”
Helen turned to Peter. “Did you say it to Phebe?”
“What?”
“We all know, Pete.”
He fought a smile. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Helen.”
“Sure you don’t. Congratulations. I approve. Just as I said to my son. Phebe matches you, Pete.”
He chuckled, not knowing what to do with this.
“A man always needs a woman who’ll challenge him into being a better man. Something I read once.”
A female voice from the hangout deck, “Ooh, chilly.” Phebe.
“We’re out here,” Peter called.
“Okay. I’ll find you.”
“Can you not see?”
“My eyes haven’t adjusted from inside. They got every light on.”
Peter met her at the boat’s side and helped her down the stairs. She leaped into his arms at the last step.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.” He kissed her.
Day 7, Friday
Chapter One
Visitors
1.
Chris argued with Peter about the sails and not pulling the correct ropes. They had to dispose of the newest infected bodies.
“No, that’s the line to the mainsail. The jib line.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you talking about.”
“The boon’s moving. Watch out, idiot. You fall over, I’ll let the sharks eat you.”
Chris was as seaworthy as a rock in Kansas.
“I should have brought Pheebs.”
“Don’t be comparing me to her, asshole.”
The radio crackled. “Petey, Syanna. Do you copy? Over.”
He rolled his eyes at his new name. “I’m here. Stop calling me that. Over.”
“Somebody radioed. He knew you by name. He’s coming in and want’s the okay. Over.”
“Does this person have a name? Over.”
“He says he’s, quote, Retired First Sergeant Leroy Jackson. Over.”
He and Chris smiled to each other.
“Jax coming to see us.”
“Syanna, give him the okay. We know him. He’s been here before, so don’t say our location. Over.”
“Duh. I am aware of that rule, Petey. Syanna, over and out.”
“Chris, pull the rope I point to.”
“We gonna see old boy Jax.”
“Not if you don’t stop dropping the sail.”
2.
After an argument regarding tying up, Peter and Chris hurried along the floating dock and through the dock door. The sloop berthed a few docks away from the Molly.
“Hey.” Chris stopped. “You see them?”
“What?”
“Those people fishing off their boat. They look Asian. Whoop, they saw us and ran inside their cabin. What’s with them? We should check them out.”
“Chris, they’ve been there the whole time.”
“We got illegal Chinese immigrants.”
“Seriously doubt it’s something like that.”
“How they living?”
“Fishing.”
“But how they do everything else?”
“That’s their problem. Let’s go see Jax.”
On the Molly, four black people sat on the hangout deck. That was a different sight than the usual. The two charged up the walkway. Jackson stood to greet them. They clutched hands and bumped shoulders.
“You look good, Sullivan. You working out again. Still don’t know how to use a razor, I see.”
“Jax,” said Chris. “You got gray hair.”
“Higgins, why are you so fat?”
Peter laughed.
“I’m down two belt notches.”
“Let me introduce y’all to my family. This young man here is my son Jayce.”
The teenager rose. He had young skinniness, but the broad shoulders of his father. They shook hands with him.
“Sirs,” Jayce said.
“This intelligent, beautiful young lady is my daughter Nia.” Nods to the tweener. “And this wonderful lady here is the mother of my glorious children. And my ex-wife. Angela.”
“Hello, guys.” She stood to shake their hands. New South sophisticated African American woman. She was city. Probably had a power career. A firm handshake as she looked them in the eyes. Even in the situation, she looked well put together.
Angela wasn’t what Peter expected to have been married to Jackson. In the Army, he had known nothing of Jackson’s personal life. He only knew of the divorce once they were both out.
