End of the Line (14 page)

             
“You sure about that?” Dave said.

             
“We’ll be fine.”

             
Aisha had a weird look on her face. Perhaps she thought she could handle it but realized she couldn’t. I thought we might head back to CostKing after this and drop her off. It would delay us but I wanted to spare her more pain.

             
Tanya led the way with the rifle out, Annemarie followed carrying Tanya’s handgun. They would switch guns giving the rifle to whoever sat up front. I followed behind Annemarie unarmed. She wasn’t comfortable with handguns; it looked shaky in her hand. She shot skeet with her friends growing up, but I don’t think she ever touched a handgun. I was a little worried about leaving the others near the truck, but the place was desolated and it would take us five minutes to check out the house.

             
We got to the front door and were greeted by a number of dead birds on the porch. Annemarie made a funny face because of rumors that the flu epidemic was avian. I think these were gifts from cats. “Hope the door is unlocked.” She moved her hand to he knob but the door was ajar. She pushed it open slightly and it opened all the way. 

             
The place was filthy. Dirt and leaves covered the floor and it smelled like rotten food and mildew. The house smelled of smoke. Paint chipped off the walls. We were in a hallway. It led to a stairwell on the right, a living room on the left and a kitchen straight ahead. From the living room, I could see a dining room. I didn’t see any zombs or smell any decay, only the smells of no one living here for a long time.

             
“Kitchen first,” Tanya said. We walked the hallway. I saw pictures on the wall of Aisha, her mother and sister. They looked like a nice happy family. 

             
“Here,” Tanya said, entering the kitchen first. “Look.”

             
I came into the kitchen. A dry erase board hung next to the refrigerator. On it, in faded letters, obviously not done in dry erase were the following words:

             
Aisha, we waited for you, but the fire forced me to flee with your sister. Neither of us got the flu. We are going to aunt May in Centereach. I love you very much! Mom.

             
The aunt’s address was below.
             

             
“There’s hope.”

             
Tanya shrugged. “That message has been here for a while. Come on, let’s look upstairs so Aisha can come in.”

             
“I’m going to check out the kitchen,” Annemarie said. “See if anything is worth salvaging.”

             
Tanya and I headed upstairs to find three bedrooms. An empty master bedroom was the first room at the top of the stairs. Ironically the bed had been made and covered by pretty floral bedspread. 

             
At the other end of the hall was small room which was also opened. Less neat, with pink ponies on the wall. Considering that Aisha’s age, I assumed this room belonged to her sister. The door next to it was closed. Tanya listened at the door. 

             
“Don’t hear anything.” She turned the knob then threw open the door. Pictures of Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga covered the walls-- Aisha’s room. In the center of the room was her desk with the same message as downstairs.

             
“I guess we can get Ais—“ A gun shot, a single one rang out from downstairs.
             
Tanya nearly hopped over the bannister to get downstairs. When I got to the bottom, I found Annemarie sitting at the table, gun in front of her, watching a dirty black cat with big yellow eyes. The cat didn’t seem startled from the gunshot and affectionately tried to rub Annemarie.

             
“Thank god, I’m a lousy shot. Stupid cat.”

             
I petted the cat who began purring and rubbing me.

             
“Least we know where the dead birds came from,” Tanya said. “Place is safe, I’ll get Aisha.” She disappeared out the front door.

             
“Poor kitty,” I said and pet it again. I
nabbed a bowl from one of the cabinets, put some water from my bottle into it and placed it in front of the cat. Cam was a dog person but I wanted a cat, so we agreed to eventually get one of each. Never did, kept saying we would, but never did.

             
“Shouldn’t have wasted a bullet like that. I’m glad I didn’t hit it, but I couldn’t hit it.”

             
“You’re better at shotguns and rifles than handguns.”

             
“Not as good as Princess. Her folks must have been the mob or something.”

             
It wasn’t true, her father owned an investment company and she had been shooting rifles and shotguns since she was a kid. The door of the house opened.

             
“Chinakitty!” Aisha yelled and ran into the kitchen.  I looked at Annemarie
Chinakitty?

             
Aisha ran to the table and petted the cat that began rubbing her. She looked at the board at her mother’s message. 

             
“My mother and sister are alive,” she said. She focused back on the cat. “Can we take Chinakitty?”

             
“Why is she called Chinakitty?” Annemarie asked. I hadn’t planned on mentioning Chinakitty’s brush with death and it seemed neither would Annemarie.

             
“Listen to her meow.” She petted the cat a few more times and it began meowing.  It had a distinct mao, mao, mao.

             
“My dad thought it was funny and named the cat China. I wanted to call her Kitty and she ended up being Chinakitty. You didn’t answer my question, Jim.”

             
“I think we can take Chinakitty, if you can find a box.” If we never found Aisha’s family, another cat at CostKing wouldn’t be a problem.

             
“Her carrier should be in the basement.”

             
“Tanya can go with you.”

             
I looked at Annemarie. “Maybe we can stop here for lunch.”

             
“Fuck lunch,” she said and threw up her hands. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for the day.”

             
12 o’clock and all is well. I wanted to sleep. Dave wasn’t happy about taking the cat but he was even more unhappy at staying the night. He thought we had enough time today to visit two more houses. No one agreed. Aisha could sleep a night in her own room. Tanya stayed with Aisha while Ashley got the master bedroom and Annemarie and Jake took the other kid’s room. Dave and I camped out in the living room with Dave taking the couch and grumbling about not having a bed. Dot stayed in the basement to smoke.

I had first watch. We were getting up at five tomorrow.  I had to stay awake until one and then Jake would cover one to five. Dave could drive in the morning. I planned to nap in the truck.

Dave passed out on the couch snoring despite a snoring strip on
his nose. He was a notorious snorer and sometimes I could even hear him from five aisles away.

I sat on a cream colored love seat by the living room by the partial curtained bay windows and watched the empty street. It was eerie. In CostKing you felt safe and far from the zombies. Here, the deadness was up close and personal. The street was pitch black. The only light was the three quarters moon that made every shadow a shambling zombie.

I felt lonely, more than a year since I’ve had sex. Maybe I was the last gay man on earth, doomed to a celibate life like Rachel.

I wished it was lighter, I would love to read, now I was bored and my thoughts kept going back to Cameron. I needed something to keep my mind off him.

The press called the first attacks riots that began increasing. By the time the word got out, it was too late. The TV stopped broadcasting. Cell phones and the internet had been slow when it worked at all. Eventually all the servers and cell towers went down. I was never able to get in touch with Cameron. After I ran low on food and escaped a zombie neighbor, I decided to flee-- to find him. I didn’t get far when a panicked driver hit my car. I was belted in, he wasn’t. I’m alive, he wasn’t, but he totaled my car. I ran to the first place I could find, a Smile-Mart. I killed my first zombie with Cam’s baseball bat. Cam loved to play sports, his body so muscular and strong when he held me.

I fled Smile-Mart and went to the CostKing which was in the same shopping center. Abe let me in when I told him I was a fastidious organizer and I could figure out how to best ration supplies. Also Ashley took some sympathy on me because I was all cut up and bleeding from the accident.

I didn’t come out of the closet for a long time, it was only after Mindy wouldn’t leave me alone that I admitted it. Abe asked my permission to tell everyone and a promise that I wouldn’t have to worry. He told them I was gay and if they had any problem, it would be his problem. While I had lots of issues with Abe’s leadership, I always respected him for what he did. Only Dave gave me a hard time, but mostly him telling me he wasn’t gay and that I shouldn’t fall in love with him. Believe it or not, I admired Dave for saying that when I knew the other men were trying to be cool and instead internalizing their fears I was going to rape them in the night. And I don’t  know why Mindy and Annemarie had a game to see if they could catch me naked. I didn’t think I’m that good looking. Cam was the Adonis.

I did get lonely. Rachel and Maddie’s friendship meant a lot to me but it didn’t compare to Cam.

I saw the figure in the moonlight and my heart skipped a beat. I knew it wasn’t a shadow or a tree. The way it moved; this weird dance of something not completely in control of its body.

I didn’t speak, I didn’t sound any alarm. The back of the love seat faced the window, so I ducked down as far as I could while still being able to look out.

It was alone. It probably smelled something-- us. I didn’t know much about the virus. Just that our flesh was their bread and a good head shot was the only way to stop them. I didn’t know how it worked and I tried not to think about it.
             

I heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs and I saw a light. It was Tanya.

“Tanya,” I whispered. “Lights off.”

She got the message immediately. The flashlight went off. She joined me staying out of sight of the window.

“How many?” she whispered, as she tried to peer out.

“One. I think it can smell us, not sure where we are. I’m hoping it will move on.”

“I can kill it.”

“I don’t want to risk bringing more here.”

Tanya took my hand. “Come on, I need you to be look out.”

“What?”

“Gonna kill it, don’t need a gun.”

“Are you nuts?”

“No, just don’t want one lurking about. This one looks all messed up. Come on, it will take five minutes. You shine a light on it and I’ll whack it good.”

She sounded crazy but she was right. One less zombie in the world. So why was my heart beating faster.

I followed Tanya to the door and she opened it. Dave didn’t wake and still snored loudly. We walked to the sidewalk where Mr. Zombie was sniffing around.

“Light him up,” Tanya said.

I shone the flashlight on him. We watched together in silence. He didn’t react to it because his eyes were gone, as was his mouth. Most of his body was burnt almost to bone. Bits of meat hung here and there.

I shivered when I looked into those dead sockets and swallowed so I wouldn’t puke.

Tanya pulled her crowbar from her bag and moved forward. The guy finally reacted and it was unexpected. He leaped in Tanya’s direction, but being blind, he missed her and she swung around and slammed the crowbar against his head. He collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

He wasn’t dead and he began moaning. Tanya hit him three or four times before he finally stopped moving.

She took water from her bottle and cleaned off the weapon, then went inside without saying a word and right back to the loveseat.

“Them’s the easy ones, the ones all messed up. It’s the ones intact or fresh you gotta worry about. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, I’m here to relieve you.” She seemed unemotional when she said it, like just killing that zombie meant nothing to her.

“It’s only 12 and Jake supposed to do it.”

“Jake’s with Annemarie, both look comfy. I can’t sleep, so here I am.”

“You don’t mind Jake is with her?”

“Why should I? I ain’t marrying him. As long as she doesn’t go psycho on me, I occasionally fuck him, cause I need to.” She paused.  “I’ll fuck you if you want.”

“You’re not my type.”

“I know, but ain’t a lot of gay men out there. You must be lonely.”

“For sex—“ then I added “From other gay men. For companionship, no.”

“Did you have someone?”