Man Eaters (28 page)

It didn’t come.

The shuffling of their feet stopped, and even the moaning seemed quieter, and as Dallas opened her eyes, she saw hundreds of lifeless ones staring back at her.

“Roper?” she whispered through unmoving lips, as if hearing her might trigger their aggression.

“I see it,” she said, still clutching Dallas. “What are they waiting for?” Roper pulled slightly away and carefully looked around them. They were completely surrounded by the undead, who stood there cocking their maggot-ridden heads from side-to-side, as if confused.

“I don’t know, but don’t move.”

“Seriously?”

“Shhh.” Dallas swallowed hard and tried to control her trembling. It was more than unnerving being so close to the undead, with empty eye sockets, torn flesh, and putrid stench. It was petrifying. “Let’s just wait.”

Then, as if on cue, they all slowly continued walking toward the Hummer, completely ignoring the clutching duo. As they plodded by, some actually brushed up against them, but not one zombie even cast so much as a single glance at them or tried to take a tiny nibble.

It was as if they weren’t even there.

“What the fuck?”

“They want Cue-Ball,” Dallas said.

“Oh my god, Dallas, I think…I think we’re going to live.”

When the last zombie wandered by, completely uninterested in them, Dallas looked over at the card shop. Butcher, who should have shot them both by now, was nowhere to be seen.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.” Roper said.

Before Dallas could answer, the door to the antique store opened and the three guys took off running in the opposite direction of the Hummer.

Immediately, the horde turned and started after them. Dallas and Roper, still grasping onto each other, closed their eyes as the zombies trudged after the men sprinting out of town.

When the horde was completely away from the Hummer, Dallas and Roper bolted for it, jumped in, pushed Cue-Ball to the back seat and started the engine.

“What the fuck was that?” Cue asked. “They just…ignored you!”

Dallas ignored him. “Where is she?” She asked Roper.

“There!” Roper pointed to the antique store, and standing out front, watching the man eaters amble after the men, stood Butcher, rifle on her hip.

Dallas pulled up to the door, Roper flung hers open, Butcher dove in, and they peeled out in the opposite direction of the horde, leaving hundreds of zombies chasing after the men going.

The Hummer was silent for the first five minutes.

Dallas gripped the wheel so tightly her knuckles were white. Roper stared straight ahead, and Cue-Ball just breathed hard.

“What the hell just happened?” Butcher asked. “What the fuck happened back there?”

“I wish I knew, Butcher,” Dallas said. “I wish I knew.”

****

Once Safety’s dressing had been changed and everyone had eaten, they surveyed the surrounding wall to make sure it was safe for the night. No one was ready to discuss what had or as in this case, hadn’t happened back in town. By Butcher’s reckoning, if the horde moved at one mile an hour, and they were a good fourteen miles from the other side of town, they could get some much needed rest in the before heading off in the morning.   

Not everyone was happy about the idea of staying so close to the town, but Roper’s ribs were bruised from her fall, Safety was sore and drugged, and everyone was emotionally drained. It just wasn’t the time to pack up and move everyone out. Dallas simply didn’t have it in her.

“I want a fire,” Roper said bluntly. “And I don’t give a shit who might see it.”

“Excuse me?”

“A fire. A campfire. I don’t care about choppers or the military. I want a goddamn fire.”

“I’m with Roper,” Butcher said. “I think we all need some comfort...some warmth.”

Dallas looked at Einstein, who shrugged. “Well then, make yourselves a fire.”

Fifteen minutes later, a roaring fire was blazing in the middle of the quarry. After they laid their sleeping bags down and everyone sat around the fire, it was Cue-Ball who finally asked the question on everyone’s minds. “Is anyone going to explain what the hell happened back there? Why they just walked on by? They should have attacked you for God’s sake.”

Roper and Dallas exchanged the same questioning gaze.

“It was the damndest thing,” Cue-Ball continued, slowly shaking his head. “There you were, smack dab in the middle of ‘em. Hundreds, maybe, and yet, not one, not one, even came close enough to biting you?”

Einstein frowned. “What? Are you kidding me? You guys were in the middle of a horde and survived? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Dallas nodded and inhaled a deep, tired-sounding breath. “They just stood there staring at us, as if they couldn’t figure out what we were. They didn’t moan, they didn’t lunge, they didn’t do jackshit except stare through those vacant eyes. It was…surreal.”

Roper reached for Dallas’s hand, which was warm from the fire. “Like bugs under a microscope. It was so creepy, waiting to be eaten one second, being stared at the next, being completely ignored after that. My heartbeat hasn’t returned to normal. Not sure it ever will.”

“And I’ll never get that stench of death out of my nostrils.” Dallas looked at Roper. The flames cast eerie flickering shadows off her face. “They stink of rotting flesh, ammonia, blood, and death. Their teeth are all loose in their heads and those eyes—” she shook her head in disbelief. “Those eyes are the worst—looking but not looking at us.” She shivered. “Gross.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Peanut was asleep with Zeus next to her, Einstein fed the fire, and Butcher drew in the dirt with a stick.

“So they went after those three guys, but left you two alone?” Einstein kept shaking his head. “That doesn’t make any sense in the zombie world at all. I’ve never heard of zombies passing up easy flesh before. It had to have been something you were wearing or ate, something those guys didn’t have.”

“A vagina?” Roper said softly.

No one laughed.

“Whatever it was,” Butcher said, looking up, you both possess it or they would have attacked at least one of you.”

Roper rose. “I need to do a perimeter check. I’m sorry, guys, but I’m just not ready to analyze everything that happened back there. I want to heave and cry at the same time.”

“Take Zeus with you. He’ll go as long as Peanut is asleep.” She knelt down and pulled the covers up around Peanut’s chin.

When Roper was gone, Butcher continued. “We may be sitting on something that could turn this epidemic around. We just need to figure out what you and Roper have in common.”

Dallas nodded, leaning against a square stone. She hadn’t yet calmed down. Her hands, when not holding Roper’s hand, trembled and were clammy. She had to hold her own hand to keep them from shaking. “Okay. Let’s see if we can narrow it down.”

Butcher studied the fire for a moment. “Whatever it is...it’s different than what the majority of the world is or has. It could be anything from a childhood disease to a vaccination, to a pheromone you emit. When Roper returns, I’ll start with the questions. Einstein, will you keep track of their answers and toss in any ideas you might have?”

“You bet, but Butcher, I can’t imagine anything that could have prevented those man eaters from attacking them. I mean, really, what are the odds they didn’t attack either of them? Very, very low.”

“You didn’t see them, Einstein. They were completely surrounded. Completely. Not one eater attempted to attack them. Not one.”

“Then I guess we have to assume they both have or don’t have something the rest of us have or don’t have.” Einstein reached into his backpack and pulled out a pen. “Let’s figure out what that is.”

Cue-Ball cracked his knuckles and leaned toward Dallas. “So, sweetheart, how are you different from the rest of the population?”

Dallas thought about her childhood illnesses, the medications she took, anything she did, wore, or at that would be different enough to avoid being bitten or eaten, but those weren’t what stood out most in her mind.

“Well...I am gay. That’s different. I don’t know that it—”

Butcher shook her head. “Yes, but Roper’s not, right? We’re looking for something you both have in common.”

No one seemed to know the answer.

“I’m not what?” Roper asked, coming out of the shadows with Zeus by her side.

Einstein was first on the trigger. “Gay. We’re trying to figure out what you two have in common, and Dallas started with gay. If I remember correctly, you told me your boyfriend’s name was Chris.”

Sitting next to Dallas, Roper shook her head. “I said my other half’s name was Chris—short for Christina.”

Everyone stared at her.

“So—you’re gay?”

Roper nodded. “Last time I checked, yeah. Why?”

Now everyone turned to Butcher, who was scribbling in the dirt again. “Okay...okay, hear me out. It’s a long shot, and I could be way off base here, but it’s just as viable a scenario as anything else.”

Einstein tossed another log on the fire and checked on Peanut. She had fallen right to sleep next to Safety and she threw one arm over his thick neck. The way the light hit her little arm made him look more carefully at something on her upper arm. Leaning over, Einstein gently pulled her short sleeve back. Closing his eyes, he shook his head and pulled the sleeve back down. He stood for a long time just staring down at her. So much like his little sister. So vulnerable and sweet. It hurt his heart to think of her turning into one of them. Glancing over at Butcher and the others, Einstein sighed. Staying alive was getting harder and harder.

So was making smart choices.

“I’ve been thinking about this from a purely scientific point of view,” Butcher continued. “This virus was man-made, right? That means someone has programmed it to seek out flesh...human flesh.” Butcher let that sink in. “That’s why they don’t go after other animals or each other.”

“Right. We’ve established that so far.”

Butcher held up her hand. “The germ of that idea, yes, but not the entire picture. Whoever designed this virus had to use a trigger that pushes the eaters toward humans, right?”

Everyone nodded.

“And to do that, they would have to have programmed in DNA. Well, here’s what we know: They don’t eat other flesh, they don’t attack each other, and they left these two alone.”

The only sound was the fire crackling in the air.

“But what you’re suggesting is they can tell the difference between gays and straights. That’s impossible.”

“Is it? What I’m suggesting...well...this is much more scientific, but, in a nutshell, I believe these two ladies may just have proven that homosexuality is genetic.”

“Come again?”

“Yeah, what the fuck kind of nonsense is that? Cue demanded. “This is rubbish.”

Butcher held her hand up. “Hey, I said it was a long shot, but the more I think about it, the greater the possibility this is.”

Dallas waved everyone off. “Everyone please let her finish.”

“You know, back in the eighties and nineties when they discovered how obesity and addictive behaviors, along with high intelligence and creativity, had genetic markers?”

Dallas nodded. “That’s about when everyone began examining DNA for the cause of everything.”

“Not the cause, Dallas, the construct. Once scientists discovered the exact substance holding our genetic makeup, they began DNA sequencing to be able to read that information.”

“Like the Rosetta Stone is to hieroglyphics,” Einstein added.

“Exactly. We know genes are responsible for dozens of attributes as well as hereditary conditions. For years, people have debated about the so-called gay gene, but no one has really looked for it or the marker, for obvious reasons.”

Dallas and Roper looked at each other before Roper said, “Because what will the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religions have to say if science discovers we really are born this way?”

Butcher tossed her stick into the fire. “Exactly. They can’t hate you if you’re born that way, and apparently, they need someone to throw stones at, so no one is in a hurry to discover the truth. If someone created a virus to attack a specific genetic code and gays aren’t on that code—”

“No fucking way.” Cue-Ball muttered. “That’s crazy talk. It’s a god damn choice and those things...maybe they wanted more meat on their bones. Maybe it was their perfume or what they ate, but passing them because they’re homos? That’s just bullshit.”

Butcher shook her head. “Look. There’s a reason those things only eat humans. That’s fact number one. Number two, two lesbians were surrounded but not eaten or attacked. Fact number three—”

“Wait.” Roper crawled over to Safety and gently uncovered his arm, showing the bite mark. “Safety was bitten, but he said they weren’t after him. His arm got in the way.”

Cue-Ball immediately scrambled away. “What the fuck?”

“Safety was bitten, but he never turned.”

Cue-Ball did not come back. “Don’t tell me you think that football player is...gay?”

“One way to find out.”

“Wait,” Butcher said. “If they bit him and he is gay, then that shoots my theory to hell.”

Roper shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. They weren’t after him when they bit him. It was an accident.” Gently nudging Safety awake, Roper leaned over and whispered, “Sorry to wake you, big guy, but we really need to know something. It’s important.”

“Sure,” he said groggily.

“Are you gay?”

Her question was met with thick silence.

“It’s okay, pal. Me and Dallas are. We think it might be why you didn’t turn after you were bitten.”

Safety’s reply was a white-toothed grin. “And here I thought it was ‘cause I’m black.”

“Black yes, but are you gay?”

More silence, followed by a slight nod. “Guess this black cat is outta the bag. Yeah, Roper, I am.”

No one said a word.

“Thank you. Go back to sleep.”

“Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. Go back to sleep.”

After a few more minutes of silence, Cue-Ball grumbled. “Coincidence. Plain and simple.”

Butcher rose and stretched. “Maybe. And maybe the zombies only go after a specific genetic code. I think maybe we all ought to think about that and we can discuss it when everyone’s not so edgy.”